


Poké Wars: The Truculence (Sinnoh Arc: Part 1)

by Cornova



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence, Blood and Gore, Loss of Limbs, Survival Horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-07-16 05:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 52,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16079075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornova/pseuds/Cornova
Summary: Sometimes I wonder why I try so hard to stay alive? In a way I've lost so much to get the power to survive, to conquer. And for what? So I can stave it off another day? And yet there's a part of me that's dead now. What's left of me tells me that's good. That part was weak, and now I'm stronger without it. So do I ever wish Pokemon were normal again? Is it wrong I want to say never





	1. And the Best is History

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after episode 553 "Fighting Fear with Fear"
> 
> A huge thanks to Hero of Strawberries for helping me find the episodes that I needed to research this arc and also a big thanks to Zarrelion and REV6Pilot my betas.
> 
> I do not own Pokemon, but if I did, I'd animate everything I've done in this series, or at least get someone to help me do that. (Can't draw to save my life)

August 16

***

The full moon shone down on a darkened path, empty and silent. Countless stars that once filled the ebon sea of the night sky began to fade into the darkness. Although distant, the city's light pollution still weeded out the weaker stars, leaving only the brightest to shine like beacons in the sky. The soft staccato crunch of gravel underfoot broke the veil of silence as Gary Oak sluggishly trekked through the forest.

Half-lidded eyes and aching feet ate at his resolve to continue walking, the weight of the contents in his backpack feeling as though they had doubled in the last minute alone. A set of golden rings pierced through the surrounding gloom. Umbreon's crimson stare settled onto Gary for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

Despite having traveled across two entire regions in his earlier years, the fatigue of walking for several hours through the night was catching up with the young Pokémon researcher. He had summoned Umbreon to keep him company and offer him some protection. The golden glowing rings on her fur warded off any wild Pokémon in the vicinity through fear alone. No matter how many times she scanned the woods around them, she found nothing but darkness and silence. She had watched Gary do nothing but stumble and yawn, mixing it up every once in a while with a tired but tender glance at her.

The moonlight Pokémon sidled up next to him, nuzzling against his pant leg to get his attention. When her efforts failed, she proceeded to nip him, not hard enough to break the skin, but enough for him to feel the sting through his violet jeans. The brunette stumbled, his weary stare settling on the dark Eeveelution.

"What's the matter, Umbreon?" he asked with a barely stifled yawn. His half-lidded eyes shifted from tree to tree, not finding anything amiss, eventually landing back on her.

Umbreon lowered herself to the ground, patting the dirt with her right paw as she stared at him. Gary shook his head with an understanding smile. "I can't stop to rest now, Umbreon, it'll only be a little further before we reach the hotel in Hearthome City."

Umbreon refused to move an inch. The glare she gave Gary was one he knew all too well; she might as well have used Mean Look.

"All right, I'll rest for five minutes, okay? Just five," Gary said with a sigh and a stifled yawn. Umbreon nodded, her crimson stare tracing his movements.

Gary didn't really lower himself down to the ground as he did collapse when his legs buckled beneath him. He didn't even have to turn his head see Umbreon already sporting a victorious "I told you so" smile. In fact, he could've sworn he could hear her smile stretch across her face.

With a grunt Gary slipped the backpack off his shoulders, a cool breeze sending chills through his spine as his sweat soaked back, now exposed to the world. The beads of sweat that had formed along his brow had migrated across his face, several dangling precariously on the edge of his chin and the tip of his nose.

Gary undid the buckle of the hip sack around his waist, laying it down beside his backpack. Umbreon stared with mild interest as her master zipped each open and dumped the contents down on the hard packed dirt. There were several multicolored scales, an assortment of cubes and stones, and what appeared to be a random collection of items that ranged from a small iron cylinder to a ragged piece of dark cloth.

Although radically different to one another, each of them served the same purpose; each of them held the key to a certain Pokémon's evolution. They were part of his newest mission, a mission he had received from Professor Rowan some time ago.

***

It had all begun nearly a year and a half ago, on Sayda Island, when he and Dora had successfully resurrected an Aerodactyl from a fossilized egg and a piece of amber he had found on his journey as a trainer. News of his achievement spread quickly throughout the regions, and it wasn't long before he received a letter with an invitation and an "all expenses paid" ticket to the Sinnoh region from Dr. Kenzo, head of Oreburgh City's Mining Museum.

Dora insisted he go: she was content with staying behind on the island to take care of her little sister Crystal and their research projects. Once Gary was sure things would run smoothly in his absence, he had Jared take him to the nearest airport. Before he knew it, his shoes had touched Sinnoh soil.

For someone like him, who wanted to know as much as possible about prehistoric Pokémon, a tour through the Oreburgh Mining Museum was like a dream come true. Every glance met with a different exhibit displaying ancient Pokémon he had never even seen before.

It wasn't until Dr. Kenzo chuckled at his enthusiasm that Gary attempted to compose himself, realizing he had been acting like a kid in a candy store and not the esteemed Pokémon researcher and grandson of the illustrious Samuel Oak.

His tour didn't end there. The research oriented half of the museum was still left to explore. Sectioning off all of Sayda Island for research barely dented the funds Gary and the research team there had been given, allowing for their current lab equipment to be state of the art. Yet, one glance at Dr. Kenzo's research facility easily put Gary's lab to shame.

It was only once Dr. Kenzo ended the tour that he explained his true intention of inviting him to the museum. Gary swore to this day that his heart had literally skipped a beat at Dr. Kenzo's offer to make him part of the team that would resurrect the Pokémon of the earlier exhibits he had seen and construct a suitable environment to house them. They would be provided with all the funding they would need to make it a reality.

Gary relayed the offer to Dora and the others on Sayda Island, feeling that they should have as much say in this as he did. The response came back quickly as a unanimous agreement to go through with the project. Once his team had relocated to Sinnoh, they went straight to work by helping construct not one, but three fossil resurrectors, modifying and reinforcing them lest it become a repeat the Aerodactyl incident.

Before they could start resurrecting the Anorith and Kabuto fossils at their disposal, they began working on their natural habitats and diets. Months of research went into studying the once fossilized flora and fauna, making sure they could survive in their new modern environment.

There was no shortage of specimens thanks to the mines scattered in and around nearby Oreburgh City. The local gym leader – Roark– was only too eager to help excavate candidates for revival, him being a fan of ancient Pokémon himself. It took nearly a year to complete, but the results were worth the work. The ancient Pokémon settled nicely into the habitat they had built for them.

It was then that an unexpected visitor came to oversee the fruits of their labor.

Gary's exploits had not only reached the scientific community through the media, but also through word of mouth from none other than his grandfather. Samuel Oak frequently boasted about his grandson's achievements in Sinnoh, piquing the interest of an old colleague that had been working in the region at the time. It was only once Professor Rowan arrived back in Sinnoh that he decided to pay a visit to the Oreburgh Mining Museum.

He had asked to be given an audience with Gary specifically, having him lead the tour through the facility. By the time he had finished showing him their finished product, the museum's visiting hours were reaching their end. Rowan, having been very impressed with the youngest Oak and his work, began to ask in detail about the project. Their conversation went on for hours, and the topics of their discussions varied, but eventually they always returned to the same subject: Pokémon.

"I'm interested in how you've been able to maintain the population at a stable level. I assume you've sterilized all of them in some manner?" Professor Rowan said.

"Not exactly. We've made sure that all the Pokémon that we've resurrected are female, making it impossible for them to breed with one another," Gary explained, pulling himself a chair across from where Rowan sat. Their late night stroll had taken them to one of Oreburgh's local cafes.

"Hi, my name's Diana and I'll be your server today. Can I get you two anything to start off with?" the waitress asked with a smile and a small notepad in hand.

"What do you have for dessert?" Rowan calmly inquired. The waitress began reciting the restaurant's vast array of deserts, to which Rowan parroted nearly half the list back to her as his order. The waitress scribbled furiously on her notepad before nervously turning to Gary, who apparently shared her surprise in the professor's apparent sweet tooth.

"And for you, sir?" she asked.

"I think I'll just have a glass of water," the young researcher said with a sheepish smile. Their waitress gave a sigh of relief, quickly scurrying back into the café.

Gary faced the Pokémon researcher. "I never would've pegged you as someone as such a fan of sweets."

"Well you see, the brain is an energy intensive organ. Glucose is what fuels the brain, and I find myself thinking so much and so often that I actually lose weight and have no energy to think about my field of research," Rowan replied with a chuckle. "At least that's what I like to tell my assistants."

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you, what exactly is your field of research?"

"Well Mr. Oak-" Rowan began, but Gary quickly lifted his hand.

"Actually, just call me Gary, Mr. Oak makes me feel like I'm as old as my grandpa."

"Right. Well, as you probably already know, your grandfather, like many professors, studies different facets of the world of Pokémon. Whereas your grandfather studies human and Pokémon relationships, Professor Elm from the Johto region researches their breeding patterns, Juniper from the Unova region is in the process of exploring their origins, and I believe Ivy in the Orange Islands is analyzing their regional differences. I could go on, but I believe you understand where I'm going with this. My particular field of research delves into the 'hows' and the 'whys' of Pokémon evolution."

Their waitress returned with the desserts and Gary's water in the middle of their conversation. Once they assured her that would be all for the night, she left to get their check. The youngest Oak watched with a mix of horror and fascination as Rowan tore through a cheesecake the way usually reserved for house-devouring tornadoes. Gary lightly sipped at his water as Rowan finished his first victim of the night in record time.

"I spent four years in the Kanto region, as it contains the most evolutionary families. My main goal has been to find the reason for Pokémon evolution," Rowan continued after clearing his throat, gently dabbing a napkin to lips concealed beneath his gray, bushy moustache. "Yes, it was in those years I discovered that nearly 91% of all known Pokémon are connected to each other."

"How so?" Gary asked. He knew it was a question he would quickly come to regret as he watched the professor reach into his briefcase and pull out a thick stack of papers. Numbers, scales and bars filled each page from corner to corner. Gary slowly leafed through the sheets and nodded with a hum of understanding that he did not truly possess.

Rowan took this opportune silence to demolish another brownie.

Once Gary felt he'd pretended to look through them long enough, he handed the papers back and watched them disappear inside Rowan's briefcase once more.

"I'd love to look through this with more time," Gary lied, "but if you don't mind me asking, I'm curious as to whether you came any closer to the reason behind Pokémon evolution?"

"It's quite all right, however that very answer has eluded me for years – ever since that very question spurred me to be the man of science I am today. Although I have no concrete evidence to show that I've come any closer to answering that question, I have managed formulate a hypothesis that might explain why Pokémon evolve."

The young Pokémon researcher leaned forward to emphasize his interest, wondering whether the professor stopped for dramatic effect or if the slice of pie he had temporarily spared had finally caught his eye.

"Since the dawn of humanity, our species has constantly tried to improve itself. We strive to make technology faster and more efficient, improve the quality of life, and achieve a greater understanding of the world around us. I believe Pokémon are not so different from us. I feel that they also contain that innate drive to make themselves better." Rowan motioned the spoon in his hand towards Gary, then to himself, continuing to dig through a small parfait set before him.

"My hypothesis is that it is through this instinctual desire to come closer to perfection, to reach their full potential, that Pokémon go through evolution," Rowan continued between bites of the parfait. "Legendary Pokémon may have already reached the pinnacle of their potential, hence their static appearance in their legends throughout the centuries."

Gary's fingers rubbed his chin thoughtfully, musing over the idea as Rowan finished off the treat and went after another slice of cake. "So why did you leave Kanto to come here?" he asked.

"Kanto held an abundance of specimens for my research… but it lacked a crucial component."

"That being…?"

"Legendary Pokémon. The Kanto legends of their native mythical Pokémon are rare, if not non-existent, and those that I did find could be traced back to Johto. In the four years that I spent there, I felt that I had learned all that the region had to offer me. Sinnoh seemed to be the next best place to continue my research, as the region holds the largest number of legends that can be attributed to actual mythical Pokémon. There are even several Pokémon from Kanto that can only evolve here."

"Really? Why?"

"I'm not entirely sure. From my observations the Pokémon here are naturally much more powerful than the Pokémon from other regions. Possibly it's the harsher conditions in this region that force the Pokémon here to strengthen. Conditions in the Kanto region are not as intense as they are here, hence there is no need for the Pokémon there to become stronger and evolve. For instance, were you aware that the Pokémon Elekid has another evolution after Electabuzz?" Rowan said as he finished off his last dessert, a small fruit tart.

"No, I didn't," Gary replied.

Gary watched as Rowan gently laid down his spoon on a set of now spotless plates.

"Which brings me to the real reason I decided to pay this museum a visit, and why I requested a private audience with you. I'll be brief: I need a capable assistant to help me with my research in this region… and I want you to be that assistant."

In the middle of draining the remaining contents of his glass at that moment, it took every ounce of willpower on the Oak's part not spray it in the professor's face at the news.

"Your check, sir," Diana informed Rowan. She turned towards Gary with a look of concern. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Gary assured her as he tried to regain his composure. Rowan pulled out his wallet and paid the bill in cash, unsurprised by Gary's response. It wasn't until their waitress was well out of earshot that Gary began speaking again.

"Not that I don't appreciate the offer, but why me? I'm sure that you've got plenty of other people that are better suited to be your assistant."

"Gary, you may not realize it, but you have quite a few things that put you well above anyone that I would consider for this task. Oak speaks very highly of you, and for good reason. Your part in recent achievements here and on Sayda Island is very noteworthy. Your grandfather also mentioned your exploits as a trainer. To have over two hundred different Pokémon caught and trained is a feat not many can hold a claim to. When I informed my old colleague that I would be leaving to do research in the Sinnoh region and my need for an assistant, he automatically recommended you. I trust your grandfather and highly value his opinion. All these things coalesce to make you the optimal choice."

Gary began to feel his face and ears quickly heat up. His eyes lowered to the table's surface, wandering over every inch that didn't bring him closer to meeting Rowan's gaze.

"Professor, as much as I appreciate your offer, I've got a lot of things going on here at the museum," Gary began, to which Rowan raised his hand.

"Which is why there's no need for you to decide now. You have a week to make your decision, but I think there's something that you should know."

Rowan paused and smiled. He knew very well that Gary would need more of an incentive to aid him in his research; he wouldn't have even mentioned it to the young researcher had he not been holding the ace up his sleeve.

"Gary, can I trust that this will stay strictly between you and me? That no one, not even your grandfather or your team in the Oreburgh City Museum will know of this?"

Gary paused momentarily, before nodding. "Yes."

Rowan nodded with a smile, knowing that he had piqued the Oak's interest. He stared into his eyes for a few more seconds.

"Gary, what if I were to tell you that I know of a remote region within Sinnoh that has remained largely unaffected by human influence for several millennia? What if I were to tell you that a group of ancient Pokémon live there to this day, peacefully, and that, as my assistant, I could take you there?"

Although unseen, Rowan's smile stretched even wider beneath his mustache at Gary's reaction. His eyebrow had flattened in skepticism at first, but as he continued to meet Rowan's sincere gaze, his expression morphed into mixed shock and amazement. Hundreds of questions poured into Gary's mind in a whirlpool of jumbled thoughts.

"How?" was all the aspiring young researcher was able to say through lips paralyzed with astonishment.

"Many years ago, I came across an interesting individual as I was doing research on legends of the Sinnoh region in the Canalave City Library. A gym leader by the name of Byron, whom I believe is the father of Oreburgh's current gym leader."

"Roark's father…!"

"Indeed. He's an interesting fellow, completely absorbed in mining and fossils. But what really brought him to my attention is a particular Pokémon he had in his possession. During your time here have you ever heard of the Shield Pokémon, Bastiodon?" Rowan asked.

Gary shook his head; in all the time he had worked on the project within the museum he had never heard of it. It was odd, considering the museum held detailed accounts on nearly every ancient Pokémon all across the continent. The fact that the archives contained such a glaring hole in their records was embarrassing, but at the same time exciting, if only because it meant that there was a possibility that there were other ancient Pokémon out there. "No, I can't say I have. So you're saying that he has this ancient Pokémon?"

"Exactly. It took a bit of coaxing, but he eventually told me how he acquired that particular Pokémon. In his younger years he had traveled through the Sinnoh region and stumbled upon Bastiodon's pre-evolution, Shieldon, in the wild, and caught it. He was kind enough to tell me the general area where I could find these Pokémon as well, and to this day, the whereabouts of that location have remained with me and me alone. I'd be willing to share them with you were you to become my assistant," Rowan calmly finished.

Gary speechlessly stared at the professor as he rose to his feet and made his way past him.

"I will be waiting at my facility in Sandgem Town. Feel free to drop me a call once you've made your decision."

Gary sat there for a long time in silent contemplation, his gaze shifting from his hands to the table. Even after the café had closed and the workers had left, Gary continued to sit and think. Whatever he decided that night would determine his future for the next foreseeable years, an idea both comforting and demoralizing.

On one hand, he had the relief of knowing what the next few years held for him, but on the other hand, it meant that there was no deviation from the path that he had picked for himself. An opportunity like that might never come to him again, and the thought of regretting his decision years later frightened him.

***

Rowan wasn't exactly surprised to see Gary standing at the entrance of his lab some days after their conversation. Having made the necessary arrangements, Gary left the project in the capable hands of Dr. Kenzo and the team back in Oreburgh.

As the personal assistant of a professor that researched Pokémon evolution, half of Gary's position required him to help find and bring subjects and materials to make that possible. Rowan had analyzed countless specimens that evolved naturally in his time in Kanto; his sights had turned to Pokémon that evolved through alternate methods.

After a lengthy conversation, Gary's Electabuzz agreed to Rowan's proposal to take part in their next experiment and evolve through the use of an object known as an electirizer. The result was a success; the newly evolved Electivire was rapidly subjected to Gary and Rowan's studies, and revealed an increase in strength in exchange for a loss of speed.

Gary's years as a trainer traveling through Kanto and Johto seemed to have paid off, with most of their experiments needing Pokémon he had already caught. The long road ahead of them was daunting, but Gary was too excited to let it deter him.

It was just before they could get into the thick of it that Gary received a call from his grandfather, asking him to come to Pallet Town to take part in a congratulatory party on Ash's behalf for winning the Battle Frontier. Rowan was more than understanding of the situation when Gary confessed that his rival was one of the main reasons he had decided to pursue Pokémon research.

***

Gary's trip back to his hometown was relatively short; defeating Ketchum in a Pokémon battle just before a party that celebrated his victory in the Battle Frontier easily killed any sense of festivity. Gary felt that, by winning, he had outstayed his welcome and ruined the party, but reasoned that Ash had been the one to challenge him and would've taken greater offense had he gone easy on him.

Ash had changed during their time apart; his voice had deepened and he had grown another few centimeters. But at heart, he was still the same trainer that Gary had fought in the Silver Conference and on his Grandfather's ranch.

For all the trust and love he formed with his Pokémon, competitively, that wasn't always going to be enough, especially since Ash's rush-forward-and-attack-repeatedly strategy had remained a favorite of his despite all. If Gary knew his old rival, then Ash would be on his way to Sinnoh at this very moment, and if Ash was to have any chance in this region, he was going to have to change the way he thought and fought.

If his old friend could only think his battles through and keep the bonds he made with his Pokémon, he could truly become a force to be reckoned with.

***

The second half of being Rowan's personal assistant was aiding him in the research and hunt for legendary Pokémon. It had been a few days since Gary had been working with the professor when the starter Pokémon Rowan was charged with giving to beginning trainers had escaped.

Search teams had been deployed to recover them, but it wasn't long before Rowan informed Gary that they had been safely recovered. However, Rowan hadn't called to tell him just that; something more interesting had come along in the process of finding them.

The beginning trainer that had returned one of the starters had mentioned seeing something that Rowan believed could've been a legendary Pokémon near Lake Acuity. Gary immediately went to investigate the area, spending nearly the entire day there, but came back with nothing to show for it.

It wasn't until Rowan had distributed the remaining starters to the new trainers that he decided to take Gary to see the Shieldon. Hearing about the legendary sighting had reignited his desire to track down the mythical Pokémon of the region, but not before doing well on his promise with Gary. With a small team of other trusted assistants, he and Gary then set out to the foot of Mt. Coronet.

***

Plans for a nature preserve were swiftly set into motion upon the discovery of the Shieldon living happily in the wild. As Rowan left to make the preparations for the construction, Gary and the other assistants were tasked with mapping out the area, finding out why the area was capable of allowing the Pokémon to live so peacefully.

Countless samples of soil, air, flora and fauna were taken, in hopes of providing some sort of clue as to the reason why the Shieldon had remained undisturbed by human influence for so long. They were not the only Pokémon that resided within the region either, as further exploration revealed that Beedrill also made their hives in the forest.

One assistant suggested that due to the heavy presence of Beedrill, humans were less likely to approach the area. Despite their territorial nature, Beedrill attacks could do little against Shieldon with their steel and rock typing, forcing them to give up on their aggression and coexist peacefully.

Several legends of mythical Pokémon that visited Mt. Coronet made having a nature preserve near the mountain ideal for Rowan's future research. Gary was glad to have been given the chance to find and interact with the wild creatures, an opportunity he doubted many people were given. Within a week, Gary knew the area like the back of his hand.

News of their findings had to be kept quiet as too much attention could damage the ecosystem. Should the word ever get out, trainers would invariably try to capture Shieldon for their rarity. Yet, as hard as they tried, the funds for their project had been traced to their location, garnering the attention of a wealthy collector, and the bounty hunter Gary would later come to know as Hunter J.

She had moved quickly, deploying her forces to every inch of the forest. J's henchmen outnumbered him twenty to one, each of them armed with several Pokémon. Out of all the people to have met in that situation, Ash was the last person he had expected, not that he was complaining. Ash and his group's presence didn't exactly turn the tide for his side, but it did make him feel better about his chances.

Despite having spent a little over month in Sinnoh, Ash's attitude had yet to change. His impulsiveness and overconfidence, if left unchecked, would risk the safety of the Shieldon. And yet, Gary's composure lay at the other end of the spectrum, making him slow to act and allowing J's men to capture one of the Shieldon.

Working together, Gary and Ash were able to break into J's ship and retrieve the Pokémon. Having contacted him, Rowan had managed to get the help of Officer Jenny, forcing the bounty hunter to flee the scene, but not before they captured some of her subordinates.

The grunts were taken in for questioning, but it was quickly revealed that they knew next to nothing about J and her plans. She had given them just enough information to do what she wanted, but not enough to make them a liability should they ever be captured. Ash and his group parted ways to continue their hunt for badges and ribbons, leaving Gary to pick up from where he started.

Having dealt with the hiccups and obstacles that once stood in their way, the construction of the preserve was once again underway. The preserve would be wide enough to accommodate the numerous Beedrill hives and allow the Shieldon to roam freely and graze in peace. However, until the preserve was done, Gary would have to hold off on his research.

In the meantime, Rowan's legendary hunt would help pass the time until the reserve was finished. It was said that there were three legendary sprites, each residing within the Sinnoh's three great lakes: Lake Verity, Lake Acuity, and Lake Valor. Rather than visit each one at a time, Rowan could send Gary to explore one lake while he ventured to another. Eventually they would meet at the final lake to share and compare whatever they had learned.

Gary carried several evolutionary items on his person at all times; he was tasked with using them on any Pokémon he found capable of evolving through them. He would also carry his laptop and document all of his findings, on evolution and anything pertaining to legendary Pokémon. A small first aid kit, some snacks and survival gear were also part of his standard gear.

***

Ash and Gary's paths would cross a second time several days later as he made his way to Hearthome City. His former rival had been attempting to train a Gligar to become stronger and overcome his fears. However, Ash's brash nature made things more difficult than they needed to be.

Seeing an opportunity for data collection and a chance to help out an old friend, Gary offered Ash and his Gligar a razor fang. Ash insisted that Gligar get over his fears before having him evolve into his next form. The scorpion-bat Pokémon would only evolve with the razor fang during the night, with no other requirements, but it made sense to have him overcome his fears before going through with the evolution.

Unfortunately, a scuffle with Team Rocket robbed Gary of the chance to see Gligar's actual transformation into Gliscor. Ash had been kidnapped with Gligar, and went missing for several hours, only to return to them victorious over Team Rocket and with Gligar's new form and newfound courage.

***

Gary found himself gazing off into the night sky, his mind awash with memories of the years gone by. He had finally found something he was interested in, something that could give him a place in society. How many days had he brooded over what he should do with his life? How many hours had he spent worrying?

He envied people like Ash in that sense, people who knew without a shadow of a doubt what they were going to do with their lives. Losing at both Kanto's Pokémon League and the Silver Conference had really opened his eyes to what was important.

Umbreon gave a soft cry to get his attention, managing to reel him back to reality with shock at how much time he had allowed to elapse.

Gary quickly gathered up the evolutionary items set before him and was back on his feet in no time, the rest having noticeably helped. The young researcher hadn't even taken two steps when Umbreon's screams pierced through the silence of the woods. Gary whirled around to find her writhing on the ground in complete agony. Before he could even voice his concern his hip sack burst open, blinding him with a giant flash of light.

Speckled dots of purple faded from his vision, unveiling the scene of anguish now before him. Electivire clutched his head, his eyes scrunched shut and beginning to water as his twin tails flailed through the air, bolts of lightning leaking from them. Blastoise withdrew into his shell, spinning in place and firing torrents of water in every direction.

Gary watched as a stray bolt of lightning instantly reduced a nearby tree to splinters, the explosion sending the burning remains raining over his Pokemon. A torrent of water missed Gary's arm by a few inches, punching a hole clean through a boulder that resided behind him.

Nidoking stomped the ground and sent rolling waves of earth in every direction as he wrung his ears with his claws. Skarmory flew haphazardly through the woods, severing the tops of every tree that crossed his path, digging a trench in the ground with a crash landing. Gary winced and backed away as the shimmering waves of heat that emanated from his Houndoom as his Flamethrower threatened to scorch his face.

Paralyzed and speechless, the researcher could only watch as the once quiet forest morphed around him, his Pokemon thrashing against some unseen tormentor.

Electivire barreled into the forest, leaving the stench of ozone in his wake. More and more bolts leaked from his body, lighting the fallen trees on his path of destruction with tiny embers. Gary made a motion to follow him the moment he was out of sight, only to be thrown back into a tree when a column of light descended from the skies and struck a distant region of the forest.

Gusts of wind blew through the trees, throwing Gary's hair back as he brought his arms to shield him from the waves of dust, dirt, and splinters. Within seconds, it was like before the madness had started; silence resuming its reign once more, and the only sound he could hear was his own jackhammer-like heartbeat in a duet with the ringing in his ears.

***

Murky waters churned.

A handful of Muk oozed out from a lake just outside Hearthome City's perimeter. Their gazes rose to the midnight sky, noting the glow of the distant city lights. They looked at each other and silently nodded, sliding back effortlessly into the opaque waters of the lake to recruit the others.

They had been woken up by a voice, a surge of power that fed their confidence and a single command that they fully intended to act upon.

"I've given you the power to take our world back from the humans… kill any who stand against you."


	2. Tripping On Acid

August 17

***

Gary Oak practically launched himself towards each of his Pokémon, pressing his fingers against their necks in search of a pulse. Only a small bit of comfort came in finding that each of them was still alive and breathing. Once he'd returned them all of them to their Pokéballs he set out to find his Electivire. All he had to do was follow the bent, burning and broken trees, as well as the increasing stench of ozone.

It wasn't long before he stood at the edge a smoking crater the size of a basketball court, Electivire's body lying motionless at its center. Gary could only gawk at the destruction that encircled the newly formed clearing. The surrounding earth and trees were blackened by the blast; tiny embers adorned the tips of every branch. Trees that once towered over him were now burned beyond recognition. The scorched soil at the edge of the crater crumbled beneath his feet, causing Gary to slip and fall onto his rear.

There he sat, scanning the rest of the crater until the realization finally hit him. The once steady tempo of his heartbeat quickened, his breaths growing shallower by the second. Gary's body began to involuntarily shiver as he realized how many times he had avoided death in the last few minutes alone.

Gary knew his Pokémon were strong, but never before had they displayed such power as to leave the scene of destruction that lay around him. His fingers fumbled with his Pokéball, aiming it shakily at Electivire's body once his sense eventually resurfaced. He would have to worry about this new dilemma later; right now he had to get his Pokémon some form of medical attention.

***

Despite his earlier fatigue, Gary pushed himself to run the remaining distance to Hearthome City. It was at its entrance that several wailing ambulances whizzed past him. He followed them, imagining they'd take him directly to where his Pokémon could be helped. Within a few minutes, his insightfulness was rewarded with a view of the Pokémon center and a line of trainers extending from the double glass doors.

Some carried their wounded Pokémon in their arms; others merely fidgeted in place as the line inched along. Trainers slowly trickled in and out of the building. Gary wasted no time in confronting the first one to leave the center.

With her gaze cast to the ground, the woman had yet to notice Gary standing in her way, long locks of burgundy veiling him from view.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what happened here?" 

The woman's gaze lifted abruptly to meet his; she had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed anything around her, let alone the young researcher asking her a question.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" she asked hurriedly, her cobalt eyes peering over his shoulder to see her black limousine waiting for her.

"I just arrived to this city and I wanted to know what happened."

"Not too long ago my Lopunny started going berserk before she passed out. By the looks of it, if you couldn't already tell, the same has happened for every trainer in the city. I went to the Pokémon center to have her checked out, but it seems the Nurse Joys inside already have their hands full. They assured everyone that if their Pokémon only passed out then they will be fine once they've rested. It seems they're currently only taking Pokémon that have been wounded during the frenzy," the woman replied before suddenly walking past him to meet what Gary could only assume was her chauffeur.

"Is everything all right madam?" the man asked. His suit and tie a glaring contrast to the rest of the population.

"It seems Lopunny will be fine, but I think we'll have to push the Hearthome Collection Show to another day."

"My sincerest apologies Miss Paris." The chauffer he opened the door and beckoned her to enter the car.

Gary could only watch as they drove away. He turned back to scan the ever-lengthening line into the Pokémon center. It was then that all the exhaustion he had managed to stave off came back to him at full force. 

As much as he cared for his Pokémon's well-being, standing in line wasn't going to bring them any closer to the medical attention he desired for them. Being Professor Rowan's assistant opened many doors, but this was not one of them.

As he made his way to his hotel, Gary couldn't help but feel that he and his Pokémon had gotten off lucky. His party hadn't hurt themselves or each other in the midst of their frenzy. The youngest Oak could only imagine the expenses for the damage that the frenzied Pokémon had wreaked upon the city; making him suddenly grateful his Pokémon had gone through their outburst in the middle of the woods.

However, with the end of one worry a new one blossomed.

Whatever had affected his party had affected all Pokémon in the city and then some. Gary couldn't help but pin the blame on a certain evil organization he'd encountered several times in the past. He hadn't thought that Team Rocket's influence had reached all the way to this corner of the globe but his earlier run in with a particular trio was enough to convince him.

Gary imagined it had to be the work of some kind of machine they'd developed or psychic Pokémon attack in an attempt to strengthen Pokémon or make them go berserk and pass out for easy pickings.

Whatever the motive, it had apparently succeeded in doing both.

Yet, there was another nagging thought at the back of Gary's mind, a fact that he had been unable to entirely ignore.

Gary had seen his Pokémon utilize their elemental attacks countless times. He had seen attacks from Pokémon that could be considered stronger than his own, but never before had he witnessed anything that equaled the power that his Pokémon had displayed in the woods.

What bugged him the most was that there was only one way to best describe the attacks he had seen: realistic. There had always been a difference between the open flames he had used to cook, and the flames his fire Pokémon attacked with. In only a few short hours the lines had been blurred. He could only hope that the changes were only temporary.

The hotel loomed ominously overhead, and from the looks of it, it had come out unscathed from the spontaneous assault that had plagued every corner of the city.

The receptionist inside greeted him from behind the counter with a forced sense of cheer, having probably been made to stand there dutifully for hours on end, unaware of the events that went on beyond the sliding glass doors. Gary doubted the man knew much of anything that was happening tonight and decided to forgo small talk for a quick retreat into his room. The room in question came up quickly as the receptionist searched for him on their database, Rowan having booked it under his name.

Gary was only half listening when the receptionist handed him his keycard and told him of the complementary breakfast in the dining hall in the morning. Mentally reciting his room's number, Gary leaned exhaustedly against the railing as the elevator sluggishly ascended to his floor.

There was a soft whir, beep, and click before the door to his room swung open, the colorful patterns of the floor now visible as a carpet of light extended from the hallway. The youngest Oak sluggishly dragged his feet into the room and closed the door behind him, stumbling through the darkness in search of his bed.

Unceremoniously, Gary let his backpack and hip sack fall to the floor at his feet, the possible damage to the contents inside were the least of his worries tonight. With his last atom of strength he kicked the shoes off his feet and into the darkest corner of the room. The smooth immaculate sheets of his bed wrinkled upon the weary researcher's collapse onto them.

He lay there, counting each passing second paired with every heartbeat. Despite his exhaustion, sleep did not find him as he rested in the clean cool sheets that softly caressed his face. The battered brunette rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling fan that lazily spun above him once his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

Countless questions still plagued his thoughts, not a single answer coming to any of them.

***

Gary groggily opened his eyes and stared blankly at the morning's glow that emanating from the drawn curtains. It would be a few seconds before thought actually entered his brain. This had been the fourth time he had awoken, only to resume sleeping. He clawed at the bed sheets beneath him and wrapped them over himself into a makeshift cocoon.

Thoughts of what had transpired the night before slowly filtered back into his mind, evoking an extended groan to break the silence. He didn't want to deal with the problem right now; the promise of comfort and rest his bed could provide lulling him back to slumber. Yet, Gary willed himself to sit upright, scanning the room and finding a digital alarm clock atop the work desk across the room from his bed.

Gary sighed, seeing that he had missed the complementary breakfast that the hotel offered. He settled on the idea that he could call for room service to get something for him; hopefully Rowan wouldn't mind paying for the extra fees.

"Wait! Rowan!" Gary screamed within his own mind, scrambling off the side of his bed in search of his backpack.

The young researcher practically tore his bag open and pulled out his laptop, impatiently tapping his finger against his leg as he waited for it to load up. Rowan would no doubt want to be informed about what had happened with him if he didn't already know what had transpired in Hearthome.

It was while Gary tried establishing a connection with the professor that a little window appeared dead center on the screen of his laptop. The page's pleasant background was blighted with the prices for utilizing the hotel's Internet access. Gary swore softly at the sight of what they charged for a single day's use.

"The professor would want me to contact him for something like this; he probably won't mind these extra fees, right?" Gary muttered the justification to himself before selecting the cheapest plan the hotel had to offer.

It wasn't long before Gary was granted Internet access and went to work, attempting to patch himself through to Rowan. However, as the minutes passed, the screen remained blank.

"That's odd. Last I remember, he said he was going back to his lab in Sandgem Town to investigate the lake there. The researcher reasoned that the professor was probably away from his computer and working on something. However, with no memory of Rowan's phone number and no laptop connection, Gary had no way of contacting him.

"I could send him mail by Starly," Gary mused bitterly, "but until then I guess I'll just have to wait until later to contact him."

Luckily, Gary knew one other person that would take great interest in what had happened to the Pokemon of Hearthome. The youngest Oak quickly set up a connection to the Kanto region, hoping his grandfather or at least his assistant Tracy would pick up.

Seconds stretched into minutes as he stared intently into the small black screen, impatience slowly giving way to worry. The program didn't even appear to be trying to connect with his grandfather's home.

In fact, it was as if Professor Oak no longer existed.

Gary repeatedly checked the hotel's signal and his own computer's setting. When nothing seemed amiss he inspected every inch of his laptop, lest its earlier drop the night prior had damaged something. Yet with each passing minute he could find nothing wrong.

With silence as his only companion in the room, his imagination began to run rampant.

"What if…what if what happened to my Pokémon…happened to all of Sinnoh? What if it didn't stop at Sinnoh and affected the other regions?"

Scenes of destruction and carnage on Oak Ranch played out vividly in his mind. With all the Pokémon his grandfather cared for, like Ash's battle hardened Pokémon and stampeding Tauros, Gary could only imagine the chaos on the ranch being a hundredfold of everything he had experienced the night before.

Gary quickly shook the distressing thoughts from his head, turning his attention back to the blank screen before him.

"Relax, Gary. You're jumping to conclusions. There's nothing that says this expanded to every region," Gary theorized as he slid off the side of his bed.

Gary quickly looked for a distraction, finding his Pokéballs and dumped them onto the table next to the alarm clock; from the looks of it his entire party was still unconscious. He could only hope that they were okay, and more importantly, back to normal.

The young researcher fastened his hip sack around his waist, making sure all his Pokéballs fit snugly inside before zipping it up. He turned to see his laptop still open upon his bed, frowning as he reached over and put it to sleep.

"Well that was a waste of money. Hopefully Rowan won't mind too much," he mumbled disdainfully as he slid it into his backpack and slung it onto his shoulders.

He turned his sights the entrance of his room, the door to the bathroom on the adjacent wall. After a solid minute of deliberating whether to shower or not before heading out in search of food, he chose the latter, grasping onto the fleeting hope that it wasn't too late to catch the complimentary breakfast. With a final glance at the mirror to make sure he was decent and not too disheveled, he made his way to the elevator.

With his room being near the top of the hotel, it would be a bit of time before Gary reached the bottom floor, leaving him with ample time to plan out his day. In the event he couldn't catch the last of the complimentary breakfast, he could always search the streets for something cheap and find a place that offered free wireless connection.

"Heck, if I'm lucky, I'll meet up with Ash and his friends again. I know at least one of them knows how to cook, especially if he's traveling with Ash and that black hole he calls a stomach," Gary chuckled softly as a gentle ding marked his arrival to the bottom floor.

The elevator doors parted slowly, revealing the lobby he had seen the night prior; only, even within the confines of the elevator he could tell that something about it was off.

Hairs on the back of the brunette's neck stood on end as he reluctantly made his way out of the elevator. The room was comfortably cool, everything in order and where it was supposed to be. Yet as the youngest Oak ventured further out he realized where the discomfort in his gut stemmed from.

The lobby was completely empty. The silence left to fill the void was practically suffocating. There was no mess, no overturned tables to mark any sign of an abrupt retreat, no soft ambient jazz, no murmurs of conversation, and no noise from the rows of TVs and their muted internal blizzards.

Gary turned his sights to the entrance where the receptionist had greeted him upon his entry, finding his post behind the counter completely empty. The sound of his fingers tightening around the straps of his backpack and his accelerating heartbeat practically echoed off the walls.

"Hello!" Gary called out a few times as he scanned the entire lobby for some hint of life. Silence echoed back at his every call.

"Where did everyone go? Is the hotel closed down? No, it can't be," the brunette pondered, suddenly wishing for some kind of noise to break the silence.

Then, as if his prayers had been answered, a muffled pop reached his ears. Gary turned to face the entrance to the hotel, sure that the noise had come from outside. He stood there patiently, waiting for another sound to prove the existence of life beyond the hotel's doors, and was rewarded with another distant pop.

Gary's first thoughts were of fireworks and of a parade going through the streets. He could see it all now: all the hotel's inhabitants, even the personnel, leaving to watch the spectacle outside. It must have been quite the celebration to cause them to leave their posts, one probably unique to Hearthome City alone.

For a fraction of an instant, Gary felt lucky that he had arrived on the very day that they were having their celebration. Considering the events that had occurred the night before, the fact that the city was still going through with this festival spoke volumes of the spirit of Hearthome's citizens.

The stirrings of a smile died on his lips as his train of thought was utterly shattered; the unmistakable sound of a scream immediately derailing his hopeful fantasies. There was no justifying it now, especially when he recognized a scream that could make blood curdle.

Gary stood paralyzed, counting each passerby outside as they bolted past the hotel, the sound of popping balloons no longer so distant. Goosebumps ran down the length of his body in record time just before the blood that furiously pumped through him froze in his veins.

Rapidly backpedaling into view were two police officers: one an Officer Jenny, the other a typical male police officer a few meters from the entrance. Each of them held a single semiautomatic pistol, the sliding automatic doors now shivered as the once muffled pops evolved into deafening bangs.

The youngest Oak could only stand and stare as they screamed something unintelligible, unloading round after round into their unseen attacker. Gary's eyes were glued to the guns - a tool of death reserved for only the most extreme cases – in their hands. He found himself flinching with every shot; his gaze slowly traveling from the muzzle of their pistols to the slides recoiling with each shot, to their arms and to their eyes.

Their eyes were wide with fear as the guns jostled in their hands, making their aim poor and forcing them to use up more of their ammo. In the end, Gary would come to understand that no matter how many bullets they used it wouldn't matter in the end. Fright spread through their bodies like a virus as they frantically pulled the triggers of their guns, rewarded only with a series of metallic clicks, making them painfully aware of the empty magazine.

Without warning, a large globule of purple sludge collided with enough force to knock Officer Jenny to the ground and completely coat her upper body. The other officer's focus immediately shifted to her; Gary could read his lips as a stream of expletives rushed from him at the sight of his partner's condition.

The officer threw his gun at the unseen assailant in a futile attempt at retaliation, rushing to his partner's side in an instant. The officer's own horror was mirrored on Gary's face.

Officer Jenny writhed madly on the floor, uselessly clawing at her face as steam began to rise from her body. Her hair, nails, and clothes were the first to be eaten away, her once fair skin peeling off to reveal the raw muscle underneath. Gary could hear her gurgling screams through the glass; the thick acidic sludge bubbled with every scream, sliding down her throat and eating away at everything it touched. Her legs flailed wildly with enough force to throw off her heels and stain the blood with every kick. 

Her partner's hands floated just above her body, torn and tortured with the desire to help her, but paralyzed to do anything lest he suffer the same fate. His first thought to end her suffering was dashed with the reminder that their guns were completely empty, leaving him with no other choice than to watch her agonizingly die.

Gary felt himself go pale, watching her sludge-coated arm reach towards her partner one last time before it fell apart. The acid made quick work of her, melting her down to the point where what was sludge and what was Jenny was indistinguishable. What was left of her melting arm splattered against the corroded pavement and a pair of bleeding legs, her entrails hanging out like chain linked sausages. There was no movement, no more pain.

The officer backed away with his hand over his mouth and eyes watering, the ivory tips of her ribs briefly peeked through the purple gunk before they too crumbled into the purple soup spreading over the ground. Gary felt nausea quickly overtake him and before he knew it he was bent over and throwing up, eyelids crushed close as the lack of breakfast was made all the more apparent with the searing burn throughout his throat.

Gary blinked back the tears, stretching strands of saliva dangled from his lips as he lifted his head. The male officer bid her a brief and silent goodbye, turning to join the other pedestrians in their escape. He had only taken a few steps when another globule of sludge collided with legs from behind.

Streaks of crimson stained the asphalt as the officer's fingers desperately clawed at the ground to drag himself another few precious inches away. The officer's face now resembled a Tamato berry, every gap in his screams were filled with the sizzling acid that ate away at his legs. Gary could only stare speechlessly, feelings himself go lightheaded from the sheer sight of pain and carnage, tears bleeding from his eyes.

Gary's years of experience as a trainer instantly kicked in upon seeing the source of the attacks, slowing oozing into view. Yet, despite instantly recognizing it, Gary found himself unable to accept what he was seeing, or rather, unwilling to accept it. It took the basis of his world and tore it asunder, going against everything he thought he knew and was raised on.

"MUUUUUUUUK." the sludge Pokémon's bellowing gurgle reverberated off the sliding glass doors as it slid over the bubbling purple puddle that was once Officer Jenny. The male officer's efforts ceased immediately, his torn and bloodied fingers futilely clamping over his nose before throwing up a mixture of vomit and blood.

The putrid odor that emanated from the Muk reached Gary's nose almost evoking him to puke once more had been anything left in his stomach. Eventually a second Muk appeared, its shadow looming over its fallen melting victim. The officer's breath was shallow, his last bits of strength dedicated to keeping him from lying down on the puddle of his own vomit.

He held what little ground he could, there was no longer any point in moving; his fate had already been sealed. There was no strength left in him to turn and face his death, he could only wait for the inevitable. Gary watched as one of the Muk raised its slimy arm slowly. Purple droplets rained from its arms as the arm raised higher and higher, every drop of its toxic gunk paired with an angry hiss from the concrete.

It was then that he noticed it; or rather he watched it notice him.

A single eye swam across an ocean of sludge before stopping on the side of the Muk's head, blinking back at the human in its sights. In an eerily slow fashion the Muk's body began to shift, the eye that stared at him remained fixated on the spot it had stopped on, not moving with the rest of the body as it turned to face him and locking back into place.

Gary flinched and stumbled back as the Muk launched its arm forward. The glass between them shuddered from the force; cracks blossomed across its surface and snaking their way to every corner, acid leaking in from every crack. The young researcher scrambled to his feet, bolting for the nearest hallway.

The youngest Oak ran with a speed he himself never thought he could've achieved in all his wildest dreams, adrenaline surged through his veins as he practically flew down the hallway. He fought the urge to turn around; his heart beating painfully against his chest, each breath paired with his rapidly beating heart. Gary rounded the corner of the hallway, eyes frantically scanning some of hint an exit from the building. Rows and rows of numbered rooms stretched out before him, holding onto their secrets.

"MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUK!" the gurgled roar echoed through the hall, making Gary jump. With no time to judge how close the Muk was from its roar alone, Gary discarded all other thoughts, trading it for distance and speed. Gary's body felt lighter than ever before, running as silently as he could in his frantic haste.

After a few turns down several corridors he found the end of the hallway with the answer to all his prayers: a glowing red exit sign. Gary tackled the door, the sun's harsh light temporarily blinding him once he made his way out. He blinked away the purple dots and backed away from the door, his ears instantly bombarded with sound screams that filled the air.

Gary backed away and pressed himself against the opposite wall, gulping at the air greedily. After pouring all his strength into his escape the fatigue was finally catching up with him. His moment of rest was cut short with the muffled roar that came from behind the door.

He sprinted along the side of the building, briefly peeking around the corner in hopes that the coast was clear. What awaited him was complete and utter chaos in the streets.

Men, women, and children ran through the streets, some even going as far as to pull and shove anyone in reaching distance behind them, in hopes that they had added another layer of safety. Regardless of age, gender or working class, everyone was now an equal target for becoming a meat shield. Everyone was now a means to a few more inches of distance, a few more seconds of life.

Gary could only stare in disbelief as the morals that formed the foundation of society crumbled and died before his very eyes. "Women and children first" had been abandoned; crying children were ignored, women were shoved to the ground and grown men were tripped and trampled upon.

Purple spheres of sludge arced gracefully through the air; when they weren't landing on the fleeing populace they were splattering on the concrete, spattering everyone with splashes of acid.

A woman fell to the ground, a ball of sludge having eaten through her ankle. She grabbed the nearest man's leg and brought him down to the ground, her grip like a vice that could not be dislodged no matter how much the man tried to shake her off. She begged for help between her screams of pain only to be kicked her in the face, her grip loosened enough to let the man scramble away. The man could only blubber apologies as he ran. 

Gary's reluctance to join the fray of madness vanished with the sounds of the door behind him slamming open. The young researcher didn't bother to peek over his shoulder, immediately bolting into the raging stampede of people. Gary wove through the racing crowds, adding as much distance between him and a slow and painful death. He made sure to not knock anyone over; he would be damned if he used anyone as a shield.

Amidst the pandemonium one figure had managed to stand out, in a sea of frenzied bobbing heads and hair Gary found himself meeting a pair of piercing black eyes. The young man stood perfectly still, Gary wagered he had to be the same age as Ash and himself.

Like a stone in the river the mobs of frantic people parted around him, no one even bothered to approach him. He brushed a lavender gray strand of hair out of his view; his movements were measured and quick.

"You can't stay here, it's not safe!" Gary yelled, stopping just before the boy.

"I'll be fine, just leave me alone and move, you're in my way," he sternly replied. Gary could only gawk speechlessly, recognizing the frigid determination in the boy's eyes. Cold and analytical pools stared past Gary like he was already an afterthought, focused on the targets behind him. The glint of several Pokéballs in the boy's hand caught Gary's eye, the sight unloading an entire new set of questions into Gary's mind.

"Does he seriously plan on taking those things on? Doesn't he know his Pokémon are unconscious?"

"I can't just leave you here, we seriously need to get out of here and evacuate with the rest of these people" Gary insisted, reaching over to grab the trainer's wrist. The trainer's focus on the distant and impending threat immediately shifted to Gary's hand and swatted Gary's hand away and turned to face him.

The trainer scowled, his brows knotted as he stared icy daggers at him.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone, you're only going to get in my way," the trainer answered back, his voice laced with irritation. Before Gary could get another word in, the trainer's leg swung and slammed into him. It wasn't enough to knock the air out of him, but it was enough to send him falling to the floor.

Gary hit the ground, catching a glimpse of the last dregs of people fleeing through the streets behind them. His observation was cut short when a purple sphere shot through where he was standing just a second ago, painting a nearby wall.

He turned to see several Muk making their way towards them; the streets between them littered with the half-liquefied bodies. The youngest Oak could only watch as one of them opened its slimy maw, gurgled, and spat another purple globule the size of a basketball.

The Pokémon researcher yelled for the trainer to run but found his plea wasted when the Muk's target merely sidestepped and allowed the Sludge attack to pass him. Another Sludge, smaller in size, soared through the air, this one aimed at the trainer's head who casually tilted it to the side, the attack missing his face by a few centimeters.

The trainer's focused expression was broken by a hiss of pain, the shoulder of his jacket now steaming after being grazed by the attack. Without hesitation the trainer, tore the blue and black jacket from his body and flung it to the ground, checking his dark teal undershirt for any residual damage. Finding none, his sights returned the Muk. 

Gary could only stare at the trainer calmly calculating and contemplating his next move with one thought in mind.

"Who is this guy?"

After careful consideration the trainer held one of his pokeballs in his hands and tossed it into the air.

"Standby for battle," Paul calmly recited, to which the Pokeball replied in turn with a flash of light.


	3. The Rival of My Rival

"Muk. Monotype poison Pokemon. Physically sturdy and resistant to elemental attacks. Poison types are weak against psychic and…ground attacks." Paul mentally recited. "They can't hurt steel types and don't damage other poison types as much. Types of which I have neither. Gliscor's a ground and flying type, but has no ground moves aside from Sand Attack. No psychic types on my team and no one knows any psychic moves. Guess I'll have to settle for dealing regular damage then. Physical attacks are out of the question; their entire bodies seem to be… acidic. Looks like I won't be able to take advantage of Ursaring's Guts ability this time. I'll have to plan this carefully. One wrong move and my Pokémon could…die? Focus! We'll have to keep our distance. My ranged attackers then?   
Magmar, Electabuzz, or Weavile? Weavile's Ice Shard is good, but his real strength is in his physical moves, not his ranged ones."

Paul was still in the midst of brainstorming when one by one the Muk began to open their dripping and slimy maws, belching clouds of poison until an opaque wall of purple sped towards them.

Paul quickly pocketed four of his Pokéballs, tossing the one he had carefully settled on while another rested in his other hand.

"Honchkrow, stand by for battle!" Paul yelled, watching as a brilliant light burst from his Pokéball to form the outline of the Big Boss Pokemon. "Use Gust." he ordered. Honchkrow did as he was told, looping through the air before righting himself and rapidly flapping his wings.

Gales of wind rushed through the streets with enough force to make Gary slide across the asphalt. 

"How? How can his Pokemon still be conscious?" Gary wondered, sensing the Muk's repugnant odor now absent from the air.

"Electabuzz, standby," Paul said as he casually dropped the other Pokeball he had held in his other hand. The familiar smell of ozone quickly occupied the air; although Gary would later admit that anything was better than the stench the Muk exuded from their bodies.

"Electabuzz, use Thunder then Light Screen," his trainer commanded, watching the sparks dance along the golden fur of the electric Pokemon before a lance of electricity fired from the core of his body. The bolt flew straight and true, striking the Muk. Gary watched the Sludge Pokémon light up like then explode, its shocked expression frozen upon its face before deep purple became an incandescent white and its remains scattered across the pavement like a bomb had been set off.

Rows upon rows of golden translucent walls materialized before them, the thunderous explosions that ensued from the ignited sludge made the walls visibly vibrate. Swirling infernos raged against the walls, but the walls stood firm.

Seconds passed and walls shimmered out of existence, revealing the blackened streets and buildings still standing in the aftermath. A solid scorched line divided the street; the distant fires that still burned, marking a different funeral pyre. Gary quickly got to his feet, making his way to the trainer and his Pokémon.

The trainer's Honchkrow and Electabuzz silently watched him as he slowly made his way towards their master, their stares boring into him.

"Thanks for-" Gary said breathlessly.

"Don't bother thanking me, I wasn't trying to. You were in my way. If you had gotten hit next to me, it would've been an inconvenience," the trainer replied, eyes still fixated on the burning streets of Hearthome. Gary stepped away from the trainer, smothering the tiny flame of irritation building inside him when he looked upon the street, empty of attackers. 

"Well, thanks for stopping those Muk, even if it meant killing them,"

"I don't think anyone will mind," Paul thought. "But to think those Pokémon could kill…Whatever, it doesn't matter now. Wait…this smell…that's never been there before when I've summoned Electabuzz. Now that I think about it, Honchkrow's attack felt a lot stronger too. Electabuzz's attack was faster than I've ever seen it go. Almost like…actual lightning. Not that I'm complaining. I don't recall them ever being this strong. If they're this strong… maybe, maybe I'll finally be able to get my revenge. I'll finally be able to make him pay. For killing him."

"Hey!" Gary spoke once more, breaking Paul's train of thought.

"What d'you want?" Paul replied impatiently, not once turning to face the brunette.

"I just wanted to know…how are your Pokémon still conscious?"

Paul faced the young researcher this time, his venomous gaze now with an added hint of scrutiny. "What are you talking about?"

"He doesn't know?" Gary mused. "Last night, around midnight, every Pokémon in this city went berserk and passed out. I was on the outskirts of Hearthome in the woods, but my Pokémon went through the same thing. I've fought Muk, one of my old friends owns a Muk, and I've never seen one of them do anything like this. I think these events are linked." Gary glanced around for any signs of the aforementioned Sludge Pokémon.

"You're right about them never doing this before. Their attacks seem more…" Paul's voice trailed off, gazing off as if to silently admire his own handiwork.

"Real?" Gary inserted, earning another instance of eye contact.

"…Yeah, I gue-"

Paul's response was left unfinished when a large purple hand burst from the ground beside him. Electabuzz acted quickly, a five-layered Light Screen materializing between his master and the acidic hand. The sandwiched screens shuddered but held, if only for a few seconds as the hand pressed forward, eating away and shattering the barriers one layer at a time.

Honchkrow flew and grabbed his master by the shoulders, launching a gust of wind against the final barrier that stood between Paul and the Muk's hand. Paul's purple sneakers slid across the asphalt, several yards away from the outstretched arm of sludge. Grasping nothing, the slime limb twisted to face Gary, a single white eye resting dead center of the poison Pokémon's palm.

"Electabuzz, use Thunder again," Paul instructed as a flash of crimson glinted off the eye in the Muk's palm. Gary's attention rapidly shifted to the trainer's Electabuzz, sporting a confident grin. Seconds passed and the expected burst of lightning never came forth, leaving Gary and Honchkrow staring at the equally perplexed Electabuzz. The Muk's arm quickly retreated underground. Gary darted towards Paul, giving the hole a wide berth. 

"Dammit," Paul mentally growled. "It probably just used Disable and now it's underground. I can still have him use Thunderpunch But I don't even know if the electricity would even reach them underground. I don't wanna risk using a physical move. But I can't just wait until they strike again. I don't even know if there's only one of them. Looks like I'll just have to smoke them out."

"Magmar, stand by for battle!" Paul yelled, pitching the Pokéball around the acid eaten hole.

The plan had been simple. Magmar would launch a ranged fire attack into the subterranean space beneath the street. No matter how deep they'd tunneled or how fast they could move, there would be no escaping these flames.

The white and crimson sphere cracked and exploded into a shower of sparks and glossy fragments the moment it parted open. Paul's crumpled and discarded jacket instantly burst into flame as a wall of shimmering air radiated from the Spitfire Pokémon's landing site. Electabuzz acted quickly, bursting forward and grabbing both Gary and Paul in each arm as he ran.

There had been no time to question why his comrade's presence had unleashed the searing wave of heat; instinct guided his actions, and now it was telling him to get as far away from Magmar as possible.

Paul could only watch speechlessly as his Honchkrow tailed behind them, the shimmering waves quickly catching up and engulfing him. The onyx feathers of his body ignited instantly within the invisible inferno, gouts of flame surged from his cracking beak as his eyes boiled within his own skull and popped. The crackle and roar of the fire devoured the last echoes of Honchkrow's screech, his burning carcass plummeting to the ground.

Gary stared at the waves of heat that gained on them, only inches away from roasting them alive. The moisture was nearly stolen from his eyes; beads of sweat running down the length of his face and hands evaporating.

For all his speed, Electabuzz knew his limits and quickly realized he could not outrun the wall of heat unless he dropped his father and the other boy. Neither option appealed to him. He could feel the ends of his fur starting to singe; the longer he contemplated the more he let the heat wave close the distance.

A quick glance to Paul made it clear he would not be getting orders from him any time soon. Rarely was his father not on top of things. Even when the situation appeared grim, he always had some kind of plan in mind. One glance was enough to see that his father had no plan for this new situation. And who could blame him?

Without warning, a column of purple erupted from the ground beneath Electabuzz, slamming into his chest. A blanket of white pain destroyed every remnant of his thoughts, the feeling akin to lava being poured onto his brain. The pain spread like wildfire across his chest as he fought through the pain to form a single cohesive thought.

The earth and sky beyond Gary's eyes suddenly entered a dance where they rapidly interchanged places. Electabuzz did his best to keep his hands outstretched as the acidic hand ate through his sternum, his final will and testament in the form of a wall of Light Screens.

Paul quickly rolled onto his feet, managing to catch a final glimpse of his Electabuzz through the golden protective wall. The once powerful arms now hung limply off his body, the tips of his fingers barely brushing against the ground. His eyes had glazed over, and although his sight was failing him, he continued to stare back at the man who had hatched his egg. The Muk's Gunk Shot had already eaten through Electabuzz's fur, flesh, muscle, and bone when the deep purple slime that made up its arm began to light up into a blinding white flash. He ground his teeth as he fought through the agony before finally relenting to his fate and giving his master a pained smile.

"I'm sorry papa. I wasn't fast enough to dodge the attack. You were always telling me I needed to be faster. Sometimes it felt like no matter what I did, no matter how much better I got, it was never enough for you. Never enough. Yet I kept trying. Why? Why did I try so hard? I guess, maybe it's because…maybe I wanted to make you to acknowledge me. I wanted to make you proud of me papa. I wonder…were you ever proud of me? I can only hope this is enough. It hurts a lot papa, it really hurts, but knowing I can do this much for you makes it easier to bear. I love you papa. That much has never changed."

Gary could've sworn the explosion had loosened his teeth from his gums. A plume of earth rose to the sky as the ground around the two Pokémon erupted, a wave of concrete dust and fragments rained over the two trainers.

Gary's heart had resumed its painful tempo against his chest as he lifted himself weakly off the ground, wincing at the newest set of scrapes that would be added to his growing collection. What awaited Gary's gaze was Paul's rigid form, too still for Gary's liking as he limped over to him. The walls of light that guarded them had vanished with the life of the Pokémon that made them.

The explosion immediately drew Magmar's attention and made him turn quickly, hoping he hadn't given his newest opponent time to strike while his back was to him. Through the field of shimmering air stared Paul and what appeared to be a spectator.

Magmar quickly scanned the rest of his surroundings, surprised to find their arena nothing more than a battle-torn city street. Quickly reeling in his focus, he continued to search, refusing to let the scenery distract him and bring his guard down. He glanced back at the crater in hopes to find a clue of what he was fighting.

At first he suspected he'd been pitted against a ground type Pokémon, and went straight to searching for an entry hole through the flames within the crater. Finding none, he surveyed the rest of the street only to find a tiny hole barely wide enough to fit his arm just before him.

"If not the ground…then the sky!" Magmar deduced, his head swiveling in every direction towards the heavens. The blue expanse stared back at him before Magmar mentally chastised himself for not having found his opponent, now probably already in position to strike him from an opportune angle.

The Spitfire Pokémon held his ground, bracing himself for the upcoming attack. Knowing his master, he'd probably hoped the opposing Pokémon would attack him and activate his Flame Body ability, hence the lack of orders.

It was after a short moment that Magmar slowly opened his eyes when the attack he'd anticipated never came. It wasn't long until he realized there were no signs of a trainer on the opposite end of the street and no referee in sight to oversee and legitimize the battle.

Utterly lost with regards to what was happening he gazed back at Paul expectantly; awaiting his orders like he had with every training session or battle he had been summoned for. Paul's entire world seemed fixated by the burning crater before him.

Seconds of silent treatment continued to tick by, a punishment Magmar knew his master employed whenever he was displeased with his performance.

"But how could he be displeased now? I haven't even done anything yet? I'm not even fighting anyone, he hasn't told me to do anything!" The Spitfire Pokémon pondered as he drew closer. A distant yell broke his train of thought the instant his foot stepped into a warm puddle of bubbling asphalt.

Magmar instinctively stepped back only to find his foot plunge into another puddle of the same substance. Puddles quickly evolved into pools and a quick scan of his surrounds made it clear that the once solid street had now melted around him.

"Am I doing this? That's never happened before," Magmar thought, turning back to his master for some form of guidance.

Scattered scraps of paper that littered the streets began to burst into flame one row at a time with every step Magmar made towards them.

"STAY BACK!" Gary yelled, his tone not a threatening one but one filled with the fear of one about to be burned alive. Another step forward made the paint on a nearby stop sign singe. Two more steps and the stop sign began to glow a dull red with the shimmering waves of heat radiating off Magmar. As he continued moving forward, the stop sign began to deform. Drops of molten metal dripped onto the asphalt, sending tiny wisps of smoke curling into the air.

Mounds of purple peeked atop the distant buildings, keeping their distance from the Spitfire Pokémon.

"BEHIND YOU!" Gary screamed, hoping the trainer's Pokémon would listen to his warning. Magmar spun around in time to find a purple sphere of acid arcing towards him, dodging out of the way with only seconds to spare. 

Gary's hand latched onto the Paul's wrist and pulled, finding no retaliation and little resistance. The Muk had resorted to taking the buildings as cover, salvos of sludge rained from the rooftops. Angry hisses filled the air as the sludge attacks boiled away and exploded. There was no room for counterattacks, only evasion. The latter becoming exceptionally hard when Magmar could find no solid footing.The first attack to actually connect with Magmar didn't eat away at his molten flesh but rather ignited and exploded, sending him flying into one of the nearby buildings.

Like a single unit, the attacks began to converge to Magmar's crash site, rewarding them with another explosion and the sight of their prey tumbling across the street like a rag doll.

"Return him!" Gary yelled, trying to shake the trainer out of his daze. Paul's attention snapped to the brunette, staring at him as if he had spoken an entirely different language.

"Use your Pokéball! If you don't return him now he's gonna die!"

Paul was no stranger to the word, but never had he associated it with his Pokémon. It cut through him like a rusting blade, rekindling old motivations and diverting them to the current situation. Paul's eyes immediately shifted down to his hand, almost surprised to find a Pokéball still in his grasp.

"This is…Honchkrow's Pokéball…No… it was Honchkrow's Pokéball…He's gone…So is Electabuzz…They're both…Dammit. No, calm down. This other guy's right. I have to pull myself together."

Paul stared into the fiery bedlam, squinting through the flames and finding his Magmar lying on the ground. There was no movement, save his slow descent into the sea of bubbling liquid concrete. For a brief moment fear gripped Paul's heart in an icy vice, his aim wavering slightly.

"Am I too late. No…Even a weakling like him is stronger than that! He has to be alive! I trained him better than that!"

The beam of red light instantly connected with Magmar's half-submerged body, turning it several shades of scarlet before converting him to energy and returning him to the safe confines of his Pokéball. Knowing nothing of his absence, the Muk continued their unforgiving salvos of acidic bombs. The poison spheres weren't exploding, but that alone seemed insufficient to stop the poisonous onslaught. 

"Let's get out of here before we're next," Gary hissed, watching impatiently as the trainer stared intently at the newly occupied Pokéball. Without a single nod or glance he turned and burst off sprinting, leaving the bewildered brunette to follow suit.

***

Gary silently fumed as he leaned into the wall for support. The young researcher had followed the trainer to a tall abandoned building, unsure as to why he had chosen that particular place. Structurally, there wasn't anything that made it different to any of the other surrounding buildings nor did it give them a tactical advantage of the situation.

Several flights of stairs had left him winded, so much so that he hadn't the strength to verbally berate the trainer he'd ended up following. Paul sat against the wall across from his, scowling at the Pokéball in his hands.

"I don't feel the heat. Is he even still alive? Would the Pokéball return a corpse? And if he is alive, if I release him now…will I ever be able to release him? I can't keep him in the Pokéball forever. Should I just leave him behind? If I can't bring him out, what's the point of keeping him with me?"

Paul's attention suddenly shifted at the sound of movement, his eyes widening at the sight of the very person that had gotten in his way, pulling out several Pokéballs from his hip sack.

"You had Pokémon and you didn't use them?" Paul growled accusingly. 

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't use them. All my Pokémon are still unconscious since last night. That's why I asked you before, how were your Pokémon still conscious?"

The sudden silence and stare made it evident that the brunette still expected an answer.

"I. Don't. Know," Paul growled before raising the Pokéball back to his line of sight, almost as if to eclipse Gary's form from view.

Gary sighed, stuffing his Pokéballs back into his hip sack and shuffling over to the nearest window, the sound of distant sirens and screams managing to filter through the glass. He stood there silently for what seemed like hours, knowing they had to make it out of the city, but unsure how.

Paul's gaze landed on the trainer, still scowling at his crimson reflection. The longer he stared at him, the harder it became to stay angry. He had lost two of his Pokémon, possibly two close friends in just a few minutes, almost a third one if he hadn't regained his composure as quickly as he did.

Gary didn't want to think how he'd feel if he'd lost anyone from his party. "My name's Gary by the way," he added, hoping to break the awkward silence somehow.

"Don't care," came the blunt reply. Paul's gaze never broke from the glossy surface of his Pokéball.

Gary didn't know at first how to respond to the blatant disregard for his introduction, settling for openly gawking at him. He quickly collected his wits, the long-standing humility he'd amassed throughout the years dissolving. "That's Gary Oak. Grandson of Professor Samuel Oak of the Kanto region and direct assistant to Professor Rowan of the Sinnoh region."

"Your point?"

Gary's face and ears reddened from the mixture of anger and embarrassment before he reined in his emotions and taking a deep breath.

"Never mind, just thought I should let you know my name," Gary said with a sigh, visibly deflating as he turned his attention to the window. After a few peeks through the plastic blinds to the city streets below; he reeled them up and slid the window open.

"It's Paul," came the barely audible reply.

Gary reeled his head back, throwing the trainer a skeptical look, not the trainer even looked up to see it. "What?"

"My name. It's Paul," he sighed irritably at having to repeat himself.

Gary nodded back thoughtfully and smiled before returning to his watch of the outside world as Paul returned to scowling at the Pokéball in his hands.

"Holy…" Gary said under his breath, slowly backing away from the window. Despite not knowing what the young researcher saw, Gary's reaction succeeded in immediately reeling Paul's attention.

"What?"

Rather than explain, Gary shifted back, allowing Paul space to gaze out the window for himself. It wasn't until Paul saw the sight for himself that he understood that the scene before them couldn't be explained through words alone, one had to see it first-hand.

The inhabitants of Hearthome that had left them behind had now returned, their numbers having noticeably been thinned since they last saw them. As they ran, purple geysers speared through the ground randomly. Several of the blind attacks managed to connect; others merely grazed their targets. In the end, a single touch was all that was needed for the acid to quickly spread across the victim's body and eat them alive.

Paul wanted nothing more than to slam the window close and retreat back to his spot by the wall. Hearing and seeing the people scream and die only succeeded in reminding him that his Pokémon had suffered the very same fate.

"Why are they doing this?" Gary whispered, expecting no reasonable answer to come. Paul slid away from the window, pacing back and forth across the room as if deep in thought. It was only after a solid minute that he stopped in the center of the room, his fingers cradling his chin.

"They're in the underground passageways," Paul voiced aloud to no one in particular.

"Excuse me?"

"The Muk; they're using the underground tunnels beneath Hearthome."

"Underground tunnels?"

"Yeah. My…my brother told me a long time ago that there's a network of tunnels that goes through the entirety of Sinnoh. I don't know who dug them, but from the looks of it the Muk are using them to get around the city. It's perfect now that I think about it. A surface group would come through the tunnels, resurface around the entire city and attack from all sides, scaring and pushing all the people towards the center. The rest of them must've stayed underground, and once everyone's right where they want them, they strike. Assuming they were actually smart enough to do this, we might be able to use this to our advantage," Paul replied.

"How exactly do you figure?" Gary asked. He tried to turn away from the window but something made him keep his eyes locked on the grisly scene of people being dissolved alive by the lethal geysers.

"Think about it. If the Muk would be focused on pushing everyone towards the center of Hearthome, then their forces might be thinner, or if we're lucky, nonexistent at the outer edges of the city. We can take these tunnels and make our way out."

"Wait, so these tunnels go through all of Sinnoh?"

"Yes, they go through all of it, or at least that's what my...what I was told."

"We have to do something to stop the Muk then!" Gary exclaimed. "If we don't, then what's to stop them from taking those tunnels and going to other towns and cities all over Sinnoh and repeating what they've done here?"

"We don't exactly have anything we could use to sto-" Paul's eyes suddenly widened as he stopped mid sentence. At first Gary thought Paul had heard something moving beneath them, tracing his gaze to find it resting on one of his Pokeballs. "

Paul wordlessly broke into a run, swiping his Pokeball off the floor as he ran for the stairs to the room above.

"What're you doing?" Gary cried out, stopping just short from the doorway of the room.

"The roof," Paul replied, already halfway up the flight.

"To do what?"

Paul stopped at the top of the stairs, debating whether or not to even dignify the question with a response. After a slight pause, Gary managed to make out a mumbled phrase before the door to the next floor clicked into place behind the trainer.

"Getting rid of two issues."

"Ursaring. Weavile. Standby," Paul called out, then beckoned for the Hibernator Pokémon to approach him and wait for instruction. "I need you to pick up a scent. Try and see if you can find the smell of food."

Ursaring gave the lavender-haired youth a quizzical look before quickly doing as he was told. The first whiff had his face contort from the horrendous smell that saturated the city's air. In time he grew accustomed to the stench and tried smelling past it. After a few minutes he was able to isolate the distinct smell of food through the foul odor. 

"Well?" Paul's foot tapped the floor impatiently. 

Ursaring nodded and lifted his arm to point west, guessing his master would next ask him what direction it was coming from. Paul nodded and glanced over to where the bear pointed. 

"Did you get that Weavile?" to which the Sharp Claw Pokémon nodded in affirmation.

"I need you to go check that area; there might be a grocery store or market if Ursaring's able to pick up the scent of food in the air. Bring back honey. Be quick, be silent, and don't get seen. That should be easy enough for you," Paul commanded. Weavile nodded and without a moment's hesitation, darted towards the edge of the building before becoming a dark blur that zigzagged through the city streets.


	4. Desperado Pawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna give a huge thanks to Nauran and Zarrelion for going through this chapter and getting it back to me

The honey in Weavile's claws shifted within the jar as he ran. In spite of Ursaring's vague directions Weavile refused to fail in his task, hoping that the meager amount he'd been able to get his claws on was enough for what Paul wanted. As random as the order seemed, Paul wouldn't have asked him to do this unless he knew it was going to be important in some way. The Sharp Claw Pokémon knew better than to question orders; only newbies and weaklings questioned the orders of great and powerful trainers like his.

Hearthome's city streets provided little opposition; in fact, the sheer scarcity of life was astounding. Weavile did his best to avoid and ignore the purple puddles that were scattered across the streets, marking the graves of the Muk's latest victims. Some of them still bubbled as they corroded the asphalt, bleeding and disembodied limbs lying around the purple puddles.

***

Paul's Gliscor scanned the concrete jungle sliding beneath him and veered right once he'd reached the outer edges of the city. As Paul had predicted the Muk were all converging, herding all the frantic citizens towards the center of the city.

The joy of feeling the wind beneath his wings had been short-lived at the sight of the Hearthome's inhabitants dying left and right. Once the Muk had succeeded in finishing off those they had shepherded into the center, they would spread out once more; thoroughly searching through every nook and cranny they came across and finish off any stragglers – at least that's what his master believed.

Personally, Gliscor felt his master gave the Muk too much credit but he couldn't discount that they'd succeeded in doing this much already. 

It didn't take long for Gliscor to travel around the outer edge of Hearthome; the wind was on his side today. Finding his way back to Paul wasn't difficult either, seeing as he had only to search for a rooftop with actual inhabitants.

From a distance he could see Weavile and Ursaring, the latter waving his thick and shaggy arm, the former simply standing with his arms crossed. Paul stood a little ways off beside them, wearing his ever-present frown.

It's always a scowl, Gliscor thought to himself before touching down on the rooftop.

"Was it like I said? Were they all moving towards the center?" Paul had asked, already straight to business.

Gliscor nodded back at the stoic trainer, expecting to be returned to his pokéball when Paul presented him with one. Instead, rather than press the center button and convert him into energy, he simply held it before him.

"I want you fly back over to the center of the city and take this pokéball. Do not open it. Just fly over there and throw it down. Get back here as soon as possible." 

Gliscor could only stare at the pokéball he was presented with. Paul quickly became aware of his hesitation to take the ball from him.

"I gave you an order, Gliscor. Go in and get out, quick and simple. Don't concern yourself with anything else, and do not open that pokéball unless you want to die," Paul coldly ordered before carefully pressing the Pokéball into Gliscor's chest.

"Just do as you're told newbie," Weavile grumbled from a distance.

Gliscor threw the ice weasel a sour look before setting his sights back on the capture sphere and gingerly taking it between his claws. As soon as it was out of his possession, Paul swiftly turned, skirting along the edge of the building as if in search of something. For a moment Gliscor felt invisible, completely ignored from his comrades and master until Ursaring made his way towards him.

"Don't take the newbie thing too seriously. Until you were caught, I was the one called newbie. Weavile's been with our trainer the longest…well, aside from Torterra. Here, I'll give ya a boost like before," Ursaring growled, beckoning him over with his claws.

Gliscor carefully wrapped his tail around the pokéball, hopping over to Ursaring already hunched over and in position. Ursaring waited until he was comfortably situated over his palms before lifting up with all his strength. Weavile watched Gliscor's rapid ascent into the sky before he spread his wings. He glided for a few meters before he found and caught an upcoming current that lifted him towards the center of the city.

Vacant or not, pokéballs weighed only a few ounces. Despite this, Gliscor couldn't help but feel that he was carrying an anvil with him as he flew over the chaotic city streets.

It occurred to him as he reached the center of the city that it probably wasn't the pokéball itself that seemed to weigh him down, but the idea of what the action would entail.

He couldn't help but wonder who dwelled within the pokéball.

Honchkrow? Magmar? Electabuzz?

Even if it was one of them, why were they being left behind? Why had the job been left to him? Had they done something wrong? Would he be in the next pokéball if he made a mistake?

Gliscor had only been with Paul for a short while compared to the others, but even in the short span of time since he'd been captured, he could tell that Paul's standards were very high when it came to battling. His training regimen was equally intense and exhausting, but it provided results.

The aero-scorpion scanned the streets below him, watching the muk and grimer congregate around a small crowd of humans they had rounded up for the slaughter.

"Go in and get out, quick and simple. Don't concern yourself with anything else, and do not open that pokéball unless you want to die."

Paul's words echoed in Gliscor's mind, reminding him that watching the muk massacre the humans fell within "anything else."

Paul's last comment also troubled the aero-scorpion's thoughts as he circled round the carnage beneath him like a mandibuzz.

Was he threatening me? Warning me? Gliscor ruminated over the thought before eventually shaking it from his mind. I haven't upset him or done anything wrong…that I know of. Maybe I'm over thinking this. For all I know, this pokéball's empty. Wait, no that doesn't even make any sense! Why would he send me out to drop an empty pokéball in the center of the city? Someone has to be in here, but why? It can't be Honchkrow; he could just fly back. Electabuzz was with him the longest; I can't imagine him doing anything bad enough to earn this. If he was here this long then I doubt he'd make such a big mistake. That just leaves, Magmar."

It was then that another thought occurred to him, one more frightening than the blood of another pokémon on his claws.

"What would Paul do to me if I didn't do this?"

Gliscor made his umpteenth revolution around the scene of slaughter below, watching as the last of the humans died beneath a mountain of acidic slime. The muk and grimer gradually oozed away from their handiwork, a nauseating odor rising from their congregation. Shimmering waves of purple rose from the city's center, forcing Gliscor to give the column of poison a wide berth.

If I don't act now I'll miss my chance. Damn it! Why did I even wait this long? Was it 'cause I didn't want the humans to get caught in the crossfire? Not like it mattered anyway, they're dead now. Wait…what if…what if Paul gave Magmar his own mission; maybe I'm not killing him at all. I'm sure the Pokéball can take a hit from this height. That's just like Paul, telling me just enough to get me to do what he wants. I wouldn't know about Magmar's mission 'cause I don't need to know it to do my job. Damn it! I'm still stalling! They're gonna get away! Come on, just let go of the ball and get out. The thoughts circled within his head like he circled the acid scarred streets below him.

Gliscor reluctantly released the pokéball, uncoiling his tail one centimeter at a time. Before it fully fell from his grasp, he cast it weakly into the pillar of poison gas and let a breeze take him. He watched it plummet all the way to the bottom, wincing when it collided with the ground.

A burst of light drew the attention of the retreating muk, turning around to find a red and yellow molten figure suddenly in their midst. The encounter was short; seconds after the pokéball flashed open a wave of heat spread out like an invisible wildfire. Purple rapidly gave way to pink and then into an incandescent white as every muk within several meters wrenched open their slimy maws to scream.

***

Several minutes earlier...

Gary felt the wall he rested on shudder with the rest of the building. Dust rained from the ceiling and over the room in waves as he struggled to find his footing. Fear immediately overtook his thoughts; the possibility that the Muk had found them was not unlikely. The thought of acidic gunk coating his body and reducing him to a steaming puddle was enough incentive to keep him away from the windows. The sound of Paul's descent from the floor above reached his ears. What surprised him was the sound of casual footfalls instead of frantic ones. Not a second after his thought, Paul entered the room sporting his trademark frown at the sight of the researcher fearfully trying to fuse into the wall.

"Are we under attack?" Gary asked cautiously, refusing to dislodge himself from his corner just yet.

"No," the trainer replied with a tone that implied Gary should have already known that. "I'm having Ursaring make a way out of here."

Gary's tension rapidly dissipated as he pushed off the wall. "Was there something you wanted?"

"I wanna know what Pokémon you have," Paul said. The tone suggested that it wasn't a request.

"I told you, they're uncon-" Gary began, only to be quickly cut off.

"Well then let's hope they're not going to be unconscious forever!" Paul snapped back.

Gary could only glare at the lavender haired youth for a few seconds, each passing moment of silence unlocking new levels of irritation. The youngest Oak released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, begrudgingly listing off the members of his party.

"I've got an Umbreon…" he began.

Paul put his hand on his chin as he mentally retrieved the information of the aforementioned Pokémon from the vast library of battle information that was his brain.

"Dark type. Limited offensive movepool. Relatively weak attacker. Very good with regards to defense. Not that it matters if it turns out all attacks are one-shot kills," Paul silently considered. 

"…A Houndoom…" Gary continued.

"A dark and fire type. Poor defensive game. Decent speed. Potentially varied movepool though. Whether it's good or not all depends on what this guy taught it."

"…A Skarmory…"

"Flying and steel type. High defense but slow and little in the way of offensive capabilities. But…it may have use outside of battle…"

"…A Blastoise…" Gary added.

"Standard water type, Relatively balanced with regards to offense, defense and speed. Could be sturdy. Really depends on our opposition out there. Could be a tank if it knows the right moves."

"…A Nidoking…"

"Poison and ground type. Would've been just what we needed against the Muk…If it was already unconscious…At least they have access to a wide variety of attacks. Wonder if it could handle an attack from the Muk? Focus! It's unconscious right now anyway so it doesn't matter."

"…And…" Gary began before his voice trailed off, his eyes cast towards the ground instead of at Paul's eyes.

"…And?" Paul impatiently pressed.

Gary sighed again, black briefly meeting black before his own sights darted elsewhere.

"…And an Electivire," the researcher said

Elec…

Gary watched Paul visibly stiffen, if only for a moment. Every attempt Paul made to mentally list off all the pros and cons were instead met with a rush of memories of his own Electabuzz.

Paul quickly banished the thoughts into a distant corner of his mind, chastising himself for the brief lapse in focus. He fought against his shimmering vision, adopting Gary's tactic of scanning the room and avoiding eye contact.

Nothing good would come from getting emotional. Paul refused to let himself fall to such a disgraceful level.

Crying was for those who lost.

Losing was for the weak.

Paul would be neither.

"Good, they may be useful," Paul replied quickly, making his way towards the stairs that led to the floor above. Just before he completely left he stopped halfway up the steps, doing his best to make his voice come out evenly.

"Are you coming or not?" he asked, his back still facing the researcher.

"Yeah," Gary muttered and followed him up the stairs the floor above them. Weavile waited at the entrance to the roof of the building, standing proudly at attention and holding what looked like a jar of honey.

"Wait for us near the entrance and hold that position until Gliscor gets back. If he's not back in at least ten minutes, you have my permission to freeze over the opening and regroup with us," Paul ordered, swiping the jar from out of Weavile's claws without so much as a smile or sign of affection. The ice weasel gave a brief salute before breaking off into a sprint and darting off the edge of the building.

"What's in the jar?" Gary asked, withholding a comment concerning Paul's treatment of his Pokémon. He eyed the container as Paul thrust it into his Ursaring's paws.

"It's honey, for when we're underground," the trainer replied plainly, heading back downstairs.

"You lost me," Gary relented as they made their way down to the ground floor, having wracked his brain for all the reasons that honey would be useful in their situation.

"You call yourself a Pokémon researcher?" Paul scoffed.

"My field of expertise happens to be in prehistoric Pokémon, not food!" Gary shot back. Paul glared softly from the corner of his eye and exhaled heavily.

"The lunate markings on the bodies of Teddiursa glow whenever they eat honey. I thought it'd be safe to conclude that the ability to do that isn't lost when they evolve into Ursaring. In fact, I'm wagering that the effect is stronger. We'll need some kind of light for when we're in the sewers."

"How did you know where to find an underground tunnel?"

"Easy. Ursaring are known for their incredible sense of smell. It's over 2000 times stronger than a humans and they can even find food that's buried several feet underground. I'm gambling on the hope that Hearthome built the sewer system over or around Sinnoh's underground network. If the Muk have been using the sewers or the tunnels then Ursaring will know it and we can steer clear or use it to locate tunnels. I'll have him smell for stale or clear air so we know what tunnels we can go into. We'll have to move quickly though. The moment he makes a hole it's going to be a signal flare for the muk."

Weavile and Ursaring awaited them outside, standing along the edge of an open manhole cover.

The silence between each passing second felt like years, Paul eventually joining Gary at the entrance of the sewers. 

"So, when're we g-" Gary started talking until the quaking concrete beneath his feet cut him off.

The sky above was suddenly tinged red from a distant flash of light. Gales of wind whistled through the alleyways, tugging at Gary and Paul's clothes as their hair was made to dance with the gusts. A mushroom of brilliantly burning flames towered over the buildings in the distance. The roar of the explosion was deafening, forcing the both of them to clamp their hands over their ears.

The heavens themselves looked raw, the once azure expanse now skinned off to reveal a layer of apocalyptic scarlet. The winds began to die, leaving a familiar blue to quickly scab over the red skies. Several dozen towers of smoke were now all that was left to mar what had essentially become a cloudless day.

"What…was that?" Gary whispered; his gaze still tilted up as if awaiting a new hellish phenomenon to occur. His hands cautiously drifted away from his ears, eyes nervously darting from building to building.

"Probably Gliscor. I sent him to create a distraction and get rid of two of our problems," Paul explained, motioning for his Ursaring to approach them. "The muk'll be trying to figure out what just happened. We can use this moment of confusion to slip out of the city unnoticed," he continued grimly, his features darkening beneath his Ursaring's shadow while they walked back to his spot by the entrance. "Now's our cue to leave. If you've got any more questions, say them now or shut it till we get out of here."

The youngest Oak wished the intensity of his stare could bore a hole through the trainer's back. As much as he disliked admitting it, Paul had thought out their getaway plan much better than he ever could. In fact, he doubted any trainers would've been able to come up with a plan so efficient and so thorough under such short notice and under such a stressful situation like theirs.

Paul had taken nearly everything at his disposal into account: the region, the city, their opposition as well as their tactics, and the strengths and unique abilities of all four of his…

Gary stopped in mid-thought. The sun's light, now unhindered by the absence of the clouds, shined off the glossy surface of three pokéballs strapped to Paul's waist.

"How'd you get Gliscor to make that explosion?"

"Like I said, he left a distraction," Paul replied plainly.

Paul's demeanor gave away nothing: no sudden stillness, no reflexive flinching. There was only the silent disregard for his question.

Gary's heartbeat increased in tempo as he advanced another step towards the trainer, repeating himself now with more conviction. "Where's your magmar?"

"He's…busy," the trainer replied simply.

The gazes of Weavile and Ursaring darted between the two speakers; the ice weasel's arms no longer crossed in stoic disinterest.

"Doing what?"

"His job," Paul replied, his tone becoming icy.

"And what would that be?"

Paul whirled around, glaring daggers at the youngest Oak who now mirrored his contempt.

"Being a distraction."

The youngest Oak could only gawk with a mixture of shock and utter revulsion. The dots had connected; Paul's words had confirmed his fears, but for all the sense it made Gary couldn't bring himself to believe that the man before him had turned his own pokémon into a living bomb.

"How could you?" Gary whispered in disbelief, clumsily backing away from him.

"What's done is done. We can't do anything for him now."

"He was your pokémon!"

"He was too dangerous to keep with us. You saw what he did to Honchkrow. Would you have wanted that kind of risk around your party?"

Paul struggled to keep his voice calm. Yelling would only attract unwanted attention and make their escape only harder.

"How did he feel about this? Did you even talk to him?" Gary snarled, the nails on his fingers biting deep into his palms as he clenched his fists.

"How could I?" Paul replied with a touch of contempt. "He was unconscious. If I had opened his pokéball, he would've killed all of us"

"There had to have been another way!"

"Maybe, but you said we needed to stop the muk from doing this to other towns and cities. The muk won't think of spreading until they increase their numbers. That would've given you enough time to warn everyone in the Sinnoh region about them. This was the best way of getting rid of two problems at once."

"HE WASN'T A PROBLEM! HE WAS YOUR POKEMON!" Gary roared, his entire body now trembling in place with rage.

"You're right…he's not a problem. Not anymore. I have no use for a pokémon that'll just get in my way."

"You…you heartless…monster!" Gary seethed, his fists clenched until his knuckles were practically white. Paul simply continued to stare at him. He didn't know how acute a muk's sense of hearing could be, but he didn't want to stay and find out. "Well this 'monster'is your only way out of this city. Stay here for all I care; I can get along fine without your pokémon."

It suddenly dawned on Gary that his party was the only reason Paul had even continued to talk to him. Had it not been for his pokémon being possibly useful, Paul might have just as easily left him to die in the city while he made his way out.

As tempting as it was, strangling Paul was not the wisest move considering he had nearly three hundred pounds of furry brown and loyal muscle, as well as something fast enough to kill him before he could lift a finger.

Gary looked to Ursaring and Weavile for some kind of sign of support, but neither of them gave any hint of anger or disgust at Paul's actions. Stony faces and grim acceptance were all he was going to find from the two of them.

Ursaring eventually disappeared into the tunnel behind his master, leaving Gary to contemplate his next from of action with Paul's weavile. Silently and begrudgingly, Gary made his way down the manhole.

***

Weavile kept to the shadows of the nearby buildings, silently praying that his wait for Gliscor would be uneventful. Part of him hoped Gliscor made it back quickly, not because he didn't want to leave him behind, but because finding his way back to Paul would be a lot easier with his echolocation.

He passed the time counting the seconds, doing his best to keep a steady tempo until he reached the ten-minute mark. It wasn't like he was planning to adhere to it so strictly, but he wasn't about to give the aero-scorpion too much extra time before he bailed.

Weavile could only hope the explosion had drawn away any attention to his area and more towards the center. And with that thought came the reminder of what had caused the explosion. The news didn't really affect him as much as it had the human. From the way the trainer reacted, he could've sworn Magmar had belonged to him at some point. He and Magmar had never been really close, so news of his death had been surprising but not entirely saddening.

Weavile knew in his heart that Paul would never do that to him as long as he made himself useful. The Spitfire Pokémon had become a nuisance for Paul, just as Chimchar had, and now they paid the price. As long as he had his speed and strength, Paul would never consider casting him away like all the others. He'd managed to stay with him this long, knowing exactly what Paul expected out of him and how to deliver.

Weavile had seen Pokémon come and go from Paul's team over the years, recognizing the ones with the potential to stay with them and the ones doomed to failure and eventual discharge from the group. He could've sworn that Magmar had fallen into the group meant to stay with them, but he had been wrong before and never questioned Paul's judgment.

It was around the three-minute mark when the smell hit Weavile like a Hammer Arm to the face. The ice weasel reflexively flinched from the odor, drying his weeping eyes to scan his surroundings.

A single tendril of slime slithered through the air, just around the corner of a distant building. On the bulbous end of the acidic tentacle was a single blinking eye, lazily scanning the streets before the rest of its grotesque body emerged from its cover.

Weavile was reminded of the eyes of a magcargo, fighting back the urge to puke when the intensity of the smell grew tenfold. A gelatinous purple hand reached out and grabbed the corner of the building, the brick hissing softly from its touch as the extended eye reeled back into the poison pokemon's head. A stream of expletives filled Weavile's thoughts as he pinched his nose with one claw.

The ice weasel couldn't help but gain a little more respect for Ursaring, seeing as he hadn't blacked out or even retched the entire time he'd been sniffing out for the presence of muk under the city with his keen sense of smell.

"I can't fight with one arm holding my nose, that's just asking to get killed. Damn it! If Ursaring can handle this with a better sense of smell than me, then so should I!"

Weavile watched the purple mound of slime slide into view, swinging its arm over its head in a wide arc to beckon the rest of its kin. He cautiously drew his claw away from his nose, not trusting the air to be safe enough to breathe in large amounts through his mouth.

One by one, more muk slid into view, circling the first one that had checked for safety. The center muk, clearly the leader of this little group, began pointing a slimy finger in various directions, one that just happened to cross paths with the hole Ursaring had made.

Weavile slowly backed into one of the alleyways, resisting the urge to release a sigh of relief. He knew that their sense of hearing and sight was bad, but he wasn't about to press his luck. The muk had yet to notice him as they, probably too interested in Paul's escape tunnel. Any chance of meeting up with his master again meant confronting them and holding the entrance until Gliscor returned.

"Where are you newbie?" Weavile mentally hissed as he scanned the skies.

"No clouds…guess that means I'll just have to make my own," the ice weasel muttered, preparing for his upcoming assault. An opaque mist drifted past his dark lips like the many columns of smoke around the city. As if I could make the newbie's job any easier to find me. He thought.

The darkening skies directly above the city street went largely ignored by the muk as they began to make their way towards the strange hole in the ground. Years of evolution had made them sensitive to temperature changes among many other things. So when they stopped to notice the air had dropped several dozen degrees, it was already too late for one of them.

A single spike of ice skewered through a muk's head, impaling it right between the eyes, through its jowls, and pinning it to the concrete. Weavile rejoiced, knowing it would only be a matter of time before the others fell to the onslaught of his razor hail. Only, his first apparent victim seemed more annoyed than mortified with the sudden attack.

The purple sludge continued to move, parting around the eroding frigid spear until it was left standing alone. A large salvo of icicle spikes rained over the group, but to the ice weasel's dismay it seemed that physical blows were not going to cut it this time. The muk scanned the dark fog above them in hopes of finding their attacker, unaware of the dark figure that had flashed into their midst.

A tempest of white snow filled the streets, chilling the sentient sludge until they hardened and froze. Another wave of hail rained down on the mounds of purple glass, shattering them until the street was coated with a thin layer of lavender slush.

Weavile couldn't help but admire his own handiwork, wondering what he had been afraid of in the first place. A sphere of sludge that soared over his shoulder, barely missing his skin, was a quick reminder. The ice weasel ran back to the safety of the alleyway, watching the air quickly being filled with several more sludge bombs.

The vibrations set off by the ice colliding with the asphalt had alerted any nearby muk of the situation. Weavile's attempts at peeking around the corner were met with splashes of purple and angry hisses the instant he tried. The dark clouds that birthed his razor edged hail gradually dissipated as the onslaught of acid intensified. Weavile pressed himself against the wall, glancing back and forth between the two options at his disposal.

He could hold his ground – and probably die waiting for a pokémon that was never going to show up; or he could let the muk take their only exit out of the city and have them flank Paul as he fled. Neither option seemed appealing until the realization came that he wouldn't have to wait forever. He had no way to tell if ten minutes had been used up, but he wasn't about to wait for the situation to get any worse.

A gurgling roar to his immediate right quickly undid his hesitation. Weavile acted quickly and fired an Ice Beam, flash freezing the muk that sloshed against the wall like a purple wave. Another muk was quick to take its place, using its frozen brother as a platform before being added to growing wall of ice.

Angry gurgles resonated from behind the ice wall, reminding the ice weasel he'd outstayed his welcome in the alleyway. He studied the street to his left, waiting for a gap in their assault before launching another Blizzard for cover.

Weavile sliced through the air with a running start, landing on the wall of the building opposite him. Without a moment to spare, he launched off its surface with all his strength, nimbly twisting and spinning around the acidic globules that filled the air.

Searching for the tunnel's entrance in the midst of the poison bombardment was like dancing madly in the rain and looking for a tiny hole in the clouds. Weavile pinballed back and forth across the buildings, a dozen darting afterimages left in his wake.

"Just slide in and seal off the entrance with ice," Weavile recited, bounding off the sparse sections of walls untouched by the acid. What he could make out through the chaotic purple haze was the startling amount of muk that had rallied to take him down.

Twenty or thirty of them had gathered behind him, firing volleys of poison as if their lives depended on it. The game of "Hit the Weavile" continued on for another minute before the strain of constantly moving began to take its toll on the ice weasel. It seemed that every time he was angled to jump through the manhole, another Sludge Bomb flew into his midst and forced him to redirect his lunge at the last second.

Spaces uncoated by the acid quickly ran out, forcing Weavile to freeze the surface of his next landing site. Sticking the landing had not been difficult, but the moment he tried to jump away, the slick surface caused him to slip. The adrenaline had been pumping full force into his veins; time had slowed to a crawl before his eyes. He watched the world slip out from underneath him, watched his life flash before his very eyes.

Seconds ticked by without incident as the agonizing death he expected never came. Weavile slowly turned his head; imagining that by some luck he'd outlasted their long range attacks and that left them only with their physical ones. For a moment, Weavile thought the sky had turned purple from the sheer amount of noxious fumes his muk audience had emitted. The haze was thick enough to block out direct sunlight, casting the entire block into darkness. It didn't take long for him to realize the Muk had forgotten him. Each one lifted their eyes to the sky with awestruck expressions. Crescent wisps of teal gray clouds had formed all over the purple heavens, evenly spaced out and holding their position.

Weavile lifted himself off the ice, turning to see how much of the sky the smog had taken. Angular patches of blue sky bordered the unnatural spread of the poison mist from all sides. It wasn't until he glanced at the section of sky directly above him that he realized he was not staring at a mere cloud of toxins.

A pair of glowing crimson eyes bore down on him as a demented Cheshire smile stretched to the furthest corners of each eye. The crescent shaped clouds were actually markings that decorated its purple fur.

Weavile recognized the face instantly; having traveled with Paul through several regions had exposed him to many of the world's inhabitants. Yet, believing what he was seeing became harder to stomach the more he thought about it. In all the years that he'd lived, never before had he seen a gengar grow to that size.

One of the bolder Muks fired a Sludge Bomb at its face; the others watching the attack ascend into the sky. Weavile watched in equal parts horror and amazement when the attack reached the peak of its height and began to plummet back down to the earth, not even close to grazing its face. One by one the Muk began to disappear, their bodies gradually brightening into a blinding red and disappearing. Some began to flee while others attempted to retaliate, but within seconds the streets were cleared of the poison pokémon. Weavile's wobbling legs gave out and slipped on the frozen surface of the street.

The ice weasel felt a puddle of warmth spread beneath him when the gengar's focus shifted to him. He watched the Cheshire smile curve into a frown and then disappear; a thoughtful expression replacing the malicious one. Weavile sat there, wide-eyed and shivering, waiting for the gengar to pass its judgment and hope that it was merciful.

"No point in taking you. Guess it's your lucky day," the gengar whispered, which for Weavile came as a gust of wind.

The giant Shadow Pokémon as it withdrew slowly from the sky, sinking through the ground in a far off section of the city. Blue skies and bright sunlight dominated the heavens once more, but Weavile found little joy in it.

"Weavile! Hey Weavile!" Gliscor cried. "Sorry, I made you wait so long. The explosion threw me off course and I had to go through the alleyways to get he-Weavile? You okay? Weavile?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Desperado (Chess) Piece - a tactical resource in which you use your doomed piece to eat as much material as possible before it dies.


	5. For Every Action

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotta give a huge thanks to Zarrelion of betaing this chapter. I honestly felt like this chapter was a tough one and didn't like it much by the end, but Zarrelion's contribution to it makes me feel a load better about it. 
> 
> As for the characters that appear in here, if you haven't watched the Giratina movie you may be a little lost. I won't tell you that you have to watch it as it isn't one of their really good ones but some of what's talked about here will go straight over your heads.

A single pond sat beneath the shade of the surrounding trees. Fingers of sunlight filtered through the branches; the blazing sun just beginning to dip into the distant horizon beyond the fringes of the forest. The immaculate surface of the pond was like dark glass, undisturbed by the surrounding elements.

Suddenly, the surface's pristine tranquility was broken as a series of ripples blossoming at its center. One particular ripple widened into a yawning purple portal as streams of violet energy raced across the now disturbed water.

A group of Starly looked on in wonder as something flew out from the portal. A middle-aged man grunted and staggered as he shot out of the tear in space-time and landed on the grass and gravel. Upon landing he turned to face the portal. He waited silently as if expecting something else to emerge in pursuit.

The man sighed sadly as he watched purple clouds rise up from doorway to the Reverse World. The doorway shrank until it winked out of existence. Aside from the need for food, water, and other amenities he could only find in the material world, nothing had ever forced him to leave the Reverse World so hastily in all the five years he'd spent studying it.

The fumes that had escaped continued to float towards the sky, brushing past several branches on their way to the upper atmosphere. The Starly watched in horrified fascination as the wood and leaves within the purple mist were bleached bone white before their eyes. Wanting no part of whatever was happening, the Starly fled, leaving Newton Graceland alone in that section of the forest.

"What could be going on in this world?" Newton asked to no one in particular, staring off into the pond that had resumed its stillness once more.

It had started weeks ago when the entities of time and space had violently clashed. Scenes of their battle appeared throughout the Reverse World, every collision bringing forth another cloud of miasma. From what Newton could gather, both Palkia and Dialga believed the other was invading the other's territory.

After several hours, their fighting stopped entirely, allowing peace and harmony to slowly trickle back into his routine. Days passed without incident, and the Reverse World researcher thought the worst was now behind him. Newton would never have imagined that the battle he'd witnessed would be the herald of the coming flood of miasma, forcing him to leave the shadowy realm.

Almost overnight, several days since the Alamos incident, the Reverse World became swamped with the dark, poisonous clouds. Newton would've left sooner, had it not been for Shieldon's sudden frantic frenzy of attacks that eventually left him unconscious. He now slept soundly in his pokéball within Newton's backpack.

Finding a portal back to the real world had been relatively easy with his spatial distortion locator; the hard part was making his way back to civilization from wherever the portal left him.

Newton reached over to the left strap of his backpack, sliding his fingers across to the red button linked to the electronics inside. A flap on the side of his backpack popped open, allowing a single thin, mechanical arm to extend and fold towards him. Hanging over his right eye was his spatial distortion locator, which now doubled as a heads-up display.

Newton listened to the whirring of the focusing rings turning in place, his view of the forest magnifying as the lens adjusted. A tiny arrowhead blipped onto the screen, calculating the distance to the nearest town. The blurring numbers above the nav point eventually came to a stop. Newton found himself frowning at the sight of the blinking triple digits.

"It's gonna be a loooong walk," he muttered with a sigh. He then began his trek, following the arrowhead on his personal HUD.

***

It was only after a few hours of maneuvering through an endless sea of overhanging fronds and branches that Newton found himself at the outermost edge of the forest.

Another pristine lake hugged the base of the nearest mountain; a small mass of clouds clung to the upper mountainside. However, Newton's eyes were not admiring the mountain's gray majesty or its faintly veiled icy summit. Rather, his eyes seemed fixated on the heap of twisted metal all along the opposite end of the lake.

"What in the?" the researcher muttered, half running, half stumbling towards the wreckage. Several dozen onyx spires towered over the grassy field, haphazardly embedded into the earth. Scattered across the grass between each black marker lay hundreds of mounds composed of iron-grey fragments.

Warped and battered towers of latticed iron rested across the field. Sparks bled from bare wires as the iron colossus went through its final death throes. Newton flinched with each flash, dodging the subsequent eruption of sparks that spewed from the mangled metal and exposed cables.

He stood there amidst the ruins, wondering what was, or better yet, what had once been this mangled wreck. In the gap of silence between each flash, a distorted but familiar voice reached Newton's ears. The researcher whirled around to find the source of the noise coming from a cracked pair of glass panels, flanking what appeared to have once been a metal walkway and podium. Suddenly, a distorted but distinctly feminine voice emanated from the ruined display.

Newton dodged loose cables, showers of sparks and dangling structural supports as he sprinted towards the voice. As he ran, he caught flashes of teal, yellow, and red peeking through the monitor's snowy visage. It wasn't until he was a few feet from the screen that he saw what appeared to be a pair of garnet and gold eyes.

The hiss of static filled the void of silence once more as Newton stared into the internal snowstorm within the screen, waiting for anything to come and shed light on what he was witnessing. Minutes passed without incident, leaving Newton to ponder why he felt he recognized the heterochromatic eyes.

His patience was eventually rewarded when the eyes and colors appeared once more and warbled something intelligible enough for him to understand.

"NU-nu-to-to-ton GRAyswnnnnn," the voice stuttered, the tone high and piercing before it rapidly deepened into an unintelligible drawl and grew silent once more. Yet, those few seconds were all Newton needed to hear to understand the situation.

Like a slap to the face it dawned on him, knowing why it all seemed so familiar to him.

The eyes he stared into were of his own design.

"Infi?" he whispered shakily, feeling every year of his age finally catch up to him. 

"Aff-fff-firmiii-iittttivvv…" the AI shrilled before fading out once more into hazy white noise.

Newton stumbled back, feeling the blood drain from his face to feed his racing heart. The wreckage around him held new meaning as he looked it over once more, dreading the implications that came with the understanding. Despite its dismantled state, a part of him felt guilty for not recognizing the technological abomination he had designed, especially after months of pouring over and creating its blueprints.

"It…it can't be! I deleted everything! Zero couldn't have…Zero!" Recovering from the realization of what happened; Newton whirled back towards the display.

"Infi, what happened? Where is Zero?" he demanded. When he got no reply, he grabbed the battered monitor and shook it for good measure.

The Megarig's artificial intelligence said nothing at first, leaving nothing but Newton's heavy breathing and crackling static. Without warning, the screen darkened and revealed a distorted image of the ship's once intact interior. The flashes of crimson light and the keening of the sirens immediately clued Newton on what he was watching: the unfortunate pilot's last moments. Peeking just above the swivel chair at the end of the room was a mass of white hair, swaying side to side as an onslaught of warning messages cascaded over one another on the screen.

"-fi, what's happe-" The voice yelled as Newton's fingertips pressed against the glass. He could hear his apprentice's voice, now deeper, older and frantic as the alerts endlessly eclipsed each other.

"-Torage containers one throu…ave been released…magne…disrup…multiple hull brea…tigravity…offli. Losing alti…evac…advis," Infi's voice continued, only be cut off by static. Showers of sparks sprayed across the room, the whining and shrieking of steel bending out of its comfort zone sounding closer and closer with every second.

"This can't b… I was so clo…Ratina! My…verse world…master…I'm so-" Zero cried out before darkness cut him off and the screen glowed blue once more.

Newton's fingers slid slowly down the glass as his legs wobbled and eventually gave out. The soft thud of his fists landing lifelessly on the grass at his feet reached his ears. His vision blurred quickly, hands sliding over the cold grass before grabbing and pulling clumps of it in his shaking fists.

Newton could feel his face contort as his grief overcame all thought, all feeling. A shaky and anguished roar was unleashed into ground; far off creatures with keen hearing took note of tortured howls and kept their distance. New and frightening noises Newton never thought were possible erupted from him, shaking him down to his core.

***

The researcher awoke sprawled out across the dirt, his eyes burning and his nose completely sealed from congestion. He could feel the dried rivers of tears all across his face, a dull ache resonating throughout his skull. Gingerly, he lifted himself off the ground and sat hunched over the dirt.

The shroud of night had been pulled over the sky, studded with thousands of tiny diamonds across its surface. With the lack of city lights they could sparkle without contest, yet Newton could take no pleasure in the sight of it. Its beauty mocked him, reminding him that despite the death of his apprentice the world still spun, the universe still turned.

News of his former student's demise would no doubt be televised, published and heard throughout the regions. The faceless populace would mourn Zero's passing in their own little ways and then forget him and carry on with their daily routine. The icy blade of sorrow would not sheath itself in their hearts as it did to his. To them, the world would not feel so grey and drained of life. No one but him would know that Zero had died in the mountainous middle of nowhere.

Newton weakly lifted his gaze to the wreckage all around him.. A fresh batch of tears did not come forth this time, the researcher could only imagine he'd become numb to the feeling or simply run out of tears. Maybe even a little of both?

He wasn't blind to Zero's intentions, but now it no longer mattered. A small part of Newton couldn't help but feel a tiny sense of relief that his student had failed in his mission. The demented invention of his design would no longer be able to hurt or sacrifice anyone in the name of science, but had he known the cost would be this high, would he have accepted it? One life for another?

I should've stayed with him. Should've made sure he'd given up on trying to capture Giratina. I had hoped distancing him from me and the reverse world would've worked. I never thought he'd go this far. If only I'd never invented the Megarig, he'd still be alive.

Dozens of "what ifs" popped into his mind, hundreds of decisions and moments he would've redone had he known this would be the end result.

"Infi…was it…was it quick? His de…passing? Was it painless at least?" the researcher asked, his voice beginning to crack.

The drone of static had diminished considerably leaving only a dull electric hum to accompany her broken response.

"E-es."

Newton sighed, the news was empty of the relief and comfort he had sought.

Sitting around and doing nothing did not bode well for Newton, even in his depressed state. Logically, Newton knew nothing would be accomplished if he sat around and mourned. He needed to keep himself busy with something, anything he could find no matter how trivial or meaningless. In the hours that passed, Newton attempted to transfer Infi from the Megarig to the systems in his backpack. During the process he looked around for anything he could find among the ruins that could shed light on what had happened.

Infi's corruption and the twisted wreckage were connected somehow, Newton was sure of it. As he mentally played the garbled recording over and over, he came to the horrified realization that the iron fragments littered across the crash site weren't all just wreckage from the airship. They were all that remained of Zero's favorite pokémon.

From a very young age Zero had always been mystified with the Magnemite evolutionary line. He had collected them as a hobby on his spare time. Something had caused the Magnemite and their evolutions to attack the Megarig. With their powerful magnetic fields running rampant, they could have easily fried the majority of the Megarig's primary systems and corrupted Infi's microprocessors.

It was around this time that Infi's transfer completed. In a matter of nanoseconds, she became integrated with the crude AI of Newton's backpack. The AI was now intimately familiar with the backpack's mechanisms and its limitations. She had also taken the liberty of repairing herself, replacing her corrupted sectors and files with older data that she had either stashed away in her uncorrupted sectors or found in the databanks of Newton's own systems.

It would be several days – at best – before she achieved the same level of efficiency she had when she accompanied Zero, but for now she was grateful to be functional. This however did not stop her from reminding Newton of her disapproval with her new housing, which was considerably smaller and far more limited than the airship she once commanded.

Infi's complaint was cut short when an orange torrent of energy burst from the ground. In an instant, three mechanical arms shot from Newton's backpack, one hanging over his head and lining the HUD eyepiece with his right eye while the stiletto-sharp metallic digits at the end of the other two arms were poised to strike.

Newton could only stumble backwards in response, his heart rate spiking at the sudden turn of events. The brief silence was only penetrated by the whir of his eyepiece as Infi zoomed in on the hole. Without warning, a dark blur rocketed out of the hole and into the air.

Newton's HUD eyepiece, now effectively Infi's only eyes to the outside world, followed the figure's path into the sky.

"Gliscor, the Fang Scorp pokémon," Infi murmured as her metallic arms now crossed protectively over Newton's form.

"Gotta give her credit, she's assimilated into the system better than I expected," the researcher muttered, only to be interrupted by Infi grumbles about the system's pathetic defensive capabilities.

A new figure emerged from the opening in the earth and took a shaky defensive stance.

"Weavile, the Sharp Claw pokémon," was Infi's disgruntled reply. For all her intellectual prowess, Infi couldn't help but grow more and more frustrated as the situation worsened. In the span of a few seconds Infi visualized a thousand different scenarios, factoring in the Weavile and Gliscor's abilities, possible attack routes, and the limitations of her new vessel. A grand majority of the scenarios ended in what the Megarig's AI constituted as a failure: the death or permanent wounding of Newton.

For a moment the only sound that penetrated the silence was the whirr of the mechanical arm holding the HUD, shifting between the Weavile and the Gliscor. Newton watched the aeroscorpion fly lazily overhead, slowly descending towards the ice weasel whose shoulders had noticeably slumped to its sides.

"No hostility detected," Infi murmured incredulously, maintaining her defensive stance just in case. The Gliscor eventually landed and hopped towards the hole, calling into it while the Weavile continued to stare at them. Silently, both pokémon moved away from the opening in time for another dark figure to emerge.

The boy landed with a whumph, the entire front half of his body pressed into the ground. He was still for a moment, long enough for both pokémon to inch towards him with looks of concern. A low groan was released into the dirt and grass as he slid his arms from his sides and outstretched them before him. His arms wobbled as he lifted himself up and rolled himself over onto his back.

"Appears to be a pokémon trainer," Infi offered quietly, retracting her metallic limbs back into the backpack. Newton walked briskly towards the fallen brunette, garnering the attention of the two pokémon that flanked him.

"Hey? Are you all right?" Newton asked, knowing his question was probably a dumb one. The boy's eyes shot open in shock; the last dregs of his adrenaline reserves coursed through his body once more as he rolled away and took a more defensive stance, fluttering eyelids gazing back at Newton.

Newton could only stare at the young man in surprise, getting a clear look at him now that he was up. Bloodshot eyes stared at him from his haggard face, every inch of his body seemed to be caked with dirt and sweat, making his clothes cling closely to his body with his brown locks draped over his forehead. His breathing was erratic; the boy was clearly scared out of his mind.

"I'm…not going to hurt you," Newton found himself saying as he stared into the boy's feverish black pools. Whether exhaustion had finally settled back in or the boy had taken his word as genuine, his arms slumped lifelessly at his sides as he sighed. Newton opened his mouth to speak once more when another whumph sounded behind him.

The researcher spun around to find another boy in equal disarray, lying a few feet from the opening. Without a word, the Gliscor and Weavile reached over to help the boy up until he waved them away the moment they drew close. He dragged himself over to the entrance, aiming a pokéball down the tunnel. A dim red glow illuminated the earthen walls before darkening once more.

Beyond the long lavender bangs was a cold and cutting glare that lost none of its potency despite the fact that he looked like he'd just finished running an entire marathon.

"Who…are you?" the second boy panted irritably.

"My name is Newton Graceland," the researcher replied.

"Wait! The Newton Graceland!" the first boy called out weakly from behind him.

"The one and only." Newton turned around, his voice devoid of the elation he would've normally shown at the prospect of someone knowing him.

"Doesn't ring any bells," the second youth grunted before backing away from the entrance. "Weavile, seal the entrance."

The ice weasel did as he was told, a cerulean bolt flying from his mouth and filling the hole with ice in an instant.

The silence that came after was thick enough to cut with a knife until the second boy spoke once more.

"Gliscor, Weavile, patrol the area and make sure we're alone."

Both pokemon nodded before blurring into action and blending into the night.

"You...wouldn't happen to have anything to eat or drink?" the first boy asked sheepishly. It took a few seconds for Newton to comprehend and react, doing his best to process everything that had just happened.

"Y-yes of course, uh, here, let me get something for both of you."

Newton sighed in relief as he slipped the straps of his backpack off. He turned and knelt down, opening up his backpack to find a few energy bars and bottles of water being handed to him by Infi's mechanical arms.

"Thanks Infi," Newton whispered before taking them and closing the flap. With a casual toss, the water bottle and energy bar flew through the air towards the lavender-haired youth who made no attempt to catch it, opting instead to let them simply hit the ground and roll to him.

Despite looking like he was still glaring at him, the second boy gave a small mumble of thanks before noisily tearing through the wrapper with his teeth and wolfing it down. Being closer, Newton decided to hand the first boy the water and snack directly, hopefully getting some answers while he was at it.

"What're your names and…what happened to you?" Newton began, happy to find something else to distract him from his own thoughts.

The first boy took the water bottle first, clamping his hand over the cap and doing his best to turn. Newton couldn't help but pity him as a look of frustration took residence on his face when the cap refused to budge.

"Here, let me get that" Newton offered, finding the bottle back in his hands.

"My name's Gary, Gary Oak. His name's Paul," he began, motioning towards the other boy with his chin. The crack of the turning cap sounded just as Newton's attention snapped to the boy before him.

"Wait, Gary Oak, as in the grandson of Samuel Oak?" the researcher replied incredulously. The youngest Oak sighed and gave a curt nod before receiving the water once more.

"Nice to hear someone knows me," he answered back with a weak smile, too weak to be sarcastic.

"Why wouldn't I? Your work on Orreburgh's prehistoric biodome is nothing short of phenomenal," Newton amended. After several large gulps of water the youngest Oak switched topics, his tone now dark and serious.

"A city! Have you been to a city recently?" The question caught the researcher off guard, leaving his pondering for a moment before answering.

"Can't say that I have," Newton confessed wondering if he technically had been within a city in the last couple months seeing as distance was different in Giratina's realm. A few steps in the reverse world could equate to several miles, all of it depending on the gap between reflective surfaces in the real world.

"Why do you ask?" he pressed, watching Rowan's assistant set the bottle down and start on the energy bar.

"Last night…something happened to my pokémon and everyone's pokémon in Hearthome City."

Newton's body tensed, sensing that somehow their plight was connected to his.

"They went berserk and starting attacking everything at random until they passed out," Gary continued before stopping mid-sentence as the researcher's face began to blanch at the news.

"Mine didn't though," Paul inserted calmly and found himself on the receiving end of Newton's quizzical stare.

"What?"

"My pokémon didn't go berserk, and I was in Hearthome that night," the trainer elaborated, crushing the remains of the energy bar's wrapper into a little ball and throwing it behind him.

"But even my pokémon went through those symptoms, and I wasn't even technically in this world," Newton added.

"What're you talking about?" Paul grumbled.

"I'll give you the short version." The researcher sighed, choosing his next words carefully. "There's another world, directly connected to ours called the Reverse World." Newton glanced between Gary and Paul to make sure they were following before continuing. "For the last five years I've been researching everything about that world, that is…until recently when I was forced to leave. If a disaster happens in our world, it creates clouds of poison in the Reverse World, and if something is damaged in the Reverse World, it can affect our world in return." Newton paused to allow for questions, only to find silence as his answer.

"The sheer amount of miasma saturating the air was too much for me. What's worse is that I've seen the amount of miasma from a disaster that involved an entire city and it's nothing compared to the amount that I witnessed before I left. If what you're saying is true, then I hate to say it, but whatever's happening; it might be happening throughout the entire region," the Reverse World researcher continued.

It was now Gary's turn to grow pale in record time; Paul didn't so much as wince from the revelation.

"This would explain why Zero's pokémon attacked the Megarig," Infi said, evoking a flinch of surprise from both boys as their attentions snapped to Newton's backpack.

"What was that?" Gary cried, shaken out of the terrible scenarios that had formed within his mind at the news of global pandemic.

"Ah, my apologies. This is Infi, an artificial intelligence I constructed years ago." Newton's introduction was accompanied by a pair of mechanical arms extending from his backpack, a HUD eyepiece that doubled as Infi's optics hanging at the end of one of them.

Paul seemed less than impressed while Gary couldn't help marvel at the sight.

"If you would allow me to scan each of your pokémon, it may give us a clue as to what caused their rampancy," the A.I. offered.

"Sure," Gary reluctantly said, handing Newton the pokéball containing his Blastoise.

"Fine." Paul relented, relinquishing the pokéball that held his Ursaring.

"This will take a few minutes," the A.I. informed her creator before grabbing each pokéball with a mechanical arm and reeling them into the depths of the backpack, shrouding the area once more in silence.

"Uh, thanks for everything," the youngest Oak said, doing his best to kill the quiet awkwardness. He absent-mindedly fed the remains of the energy bar's wrapper into the empty water bottle.

"No problem," Newton replied, settling down and sitting cross-legged before the professor's assistant. "We have a bit of time before Infi's done with her scan."

"Actually, if it's okay with you I'd like to try and get some rest," Gary mumbled.

"Oh yes, of course. I…it's just…can I ask you one more thing?"

"…Okay." Gary sighed.

"I'm sorry, but…what happened in Hearthome?"

Gary shuddered and closed his eyes at the word. The things he had seen and heard that day still played in his mind. "I…I don't even know why. There were…so many of them."

Newton waited patiently at first, remaining silent until he realized that whatever he was asking the boy bring up may have been too painful.

"Listen, I'll understand if you don't want to ta-"

"No. No…you…you should know what happened," Gary insisted, his arms wrapping around his form as if struck by some phantom chill. "It was Muk. They attacked the city," the youngest Oak began, struggling with each new word.

"Muk?" Newton said disbelievingly beneath his breath.

"Yeah. I watched them. Saw them…killing anyone they came across. Hundreds… maybe even thousands are dead now."

"They…killed? I…how could?" Newton's mouth locked up, unable to finish the sentence as his mind struggled with the concept.

"I couldn't believe it either, but I know what I saw. They were...acidic, just eating through anything they touched. Paul…he lost three of his pokémon to them. Two were because of the Muk, the third…"

Gary averted his gaze, looking as if he were about to spit out something bitter.

He shuddered and took a breath. "He sacrificed it… And as much as I hate to admit it, we might not've gotten away if he hadn't done so."

Newton glanced back, finding the lavender-haired trainer's back facing him, his chest quietly rising and falling. By the time the researcher turned back, Gary had lain down. Newton sat silently for a moment before shuffling away towards his backpack.

"What do you have?"

"Scans reveal several and specific areas all over the pokémon's brain having been forcibly atrophied. Cerebral cortex, frontal lobe, and the basal ganglia are just to name a few. These particular areas are normally associated with fine and gross motor movements, judgment, and elemental attacks for pokémon. Originally it was hypothesized that damage to these affected areas would induce paralysis or complete lack of elemental ability. Others postulated that the opposite extreme was a possibility and that these areas acted as limiters. The latter theory may be the reality, meaning that with these restrictions now removed, the fast pokémon can become faster, the strong become stronger, and harmful attacks are now-"

"Lethal," Newton finished beneath his breath, slumping onto the ground as if the bones in his body had suddenly been removed. Infi waited patiently as Newton composed himself, lost in his own thoughts of a region, possibly a world, filled with deadly pokémon.

"Have…have you discovered why the kid's pokémon were still conscious?" the Reverse World researcher asked weakly.

"While scanning your pokémon the readings indicated sections of Shieldon's brain surrounded the affected areas to be heavily stressed. However, these signs were not present in Paul's pokémon. The stress can be attributed to the influx of powerful signals running through a brain that is unaccustomed to the strain. With these factors alone, I hypothesize that allowing the process to occur presents no harm to the pokémon, but-"

"But fighting it creates the stress that eventually makes them the pokémon pass out," Newton replied, finishing the AI's hypothesis. He recalled his Shieldon's desperate attempt to contain or at least aim his attacks away from him.

The Reverse World researcher began to frantically pace back and forth for a few minutes until the former airship A.I. spoke over his mumbled ramblings to get his attention.

"Newton"

"His pokemon must've embraced the powe-"

"NEWTON!"

"Huh? What?" Newton stumbled, shaking his head as if to clear it of the rampaging thoughts that swarmed within his mind like an angry Beedrill hive. "What is it Infi?"

"It is late. Sleep is advised. Lowered cortisol will allow the current situation to appear bearable after a night's rest."

Newton chuckled darkly but got the message and started lying down. Despite wondering how he could possibly fall asleep after everything that happened, he eventually dozed off, darkness taking him as fatigue settled in.

***

Dark and purple formless horrors ebbed before Gary's vision, carrying with it the vile gurgles and bloodcurdling screams of the countless victims of Hearthome. Shifting shadows swirled around him, almost as if he was in the eye of a black vortex. No matter how hard he ran, regardless of direction, he could not escape the darkness. Sometimes he saw nothing, sometimes he saw snippets of the atrocities he'd witnessed. Other times he saw it all in its grotesque splendor. Scenes of the dying police officers, the fleeing populace played over and over again, disregarding his pleas for them to stop.

He would shake himself awake, only to find the shroud of night still upon him and the rest of the world. Fresh tears were always present whenever he awoke, as was the frustration at feeling trapped by his own mind. The slightest rustle drew his attention; insanity threatened to claim him every time the wind blew. So suffocating was the blackness that he couldn't see his own hands in front of his face and could do nothing but stare blankly in the direction of the noise, veiled by the void. It didn't matter that Weavile and Gliscor were both guarding them; reason and logic could not reach him in his current state.

Eventually exhaustion would claim him once more and drag him back into disgruntled slumber where his nightmares would begin anew, and the vicious cycle would continue. Gary lost count of how many times this happened; all he knew was that he prayed the morning sun would free him of his torment.


	6. Going Off the Rails

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zarrelion for his help not only betaing this chapter, but helping bounce ideas back and forth.

August 18

***

Groaning upon regaining consciousness seemed destined to be part of Gary's morning ritual. It was like his brain was being rebooted, with crystal-clear images flashing through his mind in rapid succession. It was as if his brain was trying to get him up to speed on all that had happened the day before. Everything he had tried to forcefully repress.

Every part of him rejected the memories he was force-fed, telling himself it was all just a realistic and terrible nightmare. Yet no matter how hard he tried to deny the event, the ugly truth was that the horrors he witnessed were part of the grim reality he now lived. The kernel of dread within him had metastasized into a tumor, feasting off the warmth of his body and leaving only a cold emptiness to take its place. A tortured groan and eventual whimper escaped past his lips as his body curled into a tight and shivering ball.

"I don't want to deal with this. I don't want to deal with this. Why? Why is this happening?" echoed endlessly within his mind."

The sound of something heavy slamming against the ground shattered Gary's train of thought and made his hairs stand on end. Adrenaline coursed through his veins for what seemed like the umpteenth time as he rolled along the floor and into a crouching position, ready to pounce away at a moment's notice.

What awaited him was not an attack. But something else. Paul sat with his back to him as he watched Newton sift through the metallic wreckage all around them.

"Was that always there? Guess I couldn't make it out considering how dark and how tired I was," Gary thought as he let himself relax.

"You're up," Paul said, in a way that wasn't so much a question as it was a statement.

"…Yeah" Gary eventually mumbled back, making his way over to the trainer whose back was still to him. "Sleep well?"

"…Slept fine. Would've slept better if you weren't crying in your sleep," Paul replied, albeit lacking any form of malice or resentment in his voice.

Gary winced, feeling color rise to his face and tinge his cheeks. He would've apologized but he knew it would be wasted on someone like Paul. Companionable silence seemed to be the more appropriate response.

He glanced around; surprised to find the natural beauty of the area aesthetically pleasing...if one could ignore the giant piles of iron scrap. A few days ago he would've appreciated the sight of the landscape, now he found it only serve as a contrast to the probable chaos the rest of the region was experiencing.

Another sudden slam from a steel slab shook Gary from his thoughts and brought him back to the here and now. A pair of bulky, two-fingered mechanical arms hung over Newton's shoulders as they effortlessly lifted a metal panel nearly as large as he was. Finding the item to be of no use to him, the two arms tossed it aside as if it were a mere pillow. Despite watching it fall, Gary couldn't help but flinch at the sight and sound of it colliding with the ground.

"What is all of this? What's he looking for?" the young researcher asked.

"Don't know," Paul replied, his tone oddly hushed. "He mentioned something about all this stuff once being a ship that his apprentice piloted

Gary quickly picked up on the social cue, looking around at the metal surrounding them with new understanding. A wave of pity for the scientist washed over him as he watched the man wade through mounds of iron scrap. He watched as Newton had Infi overturn hulking pieces of scrap as if looking for his own child. Alas, despite the twinge in his heart that told him to "go help", he was completely impotent. All the desire in the world couldn't grant him the strength to toss wreckage aside like playthings.

"Oh…by the way," Gary absently heard Paul say before something collided with his head. The impact didn't so much as hurt as it did startle him. He watched it bounce and roll into his lap. Gary threw the trainer a scathing glare that quickly simmered down when just the thought of starting a fight seemed to exhaust him. He peered down at the pokéball and found himself wincing at the sight of it.

The man upon the pokéball's glossy surface was not someone Gary recognized. Baggy and tired eyes stared back at him from a haggard face caked in dirt and mud. Frequent and sudden stirrings the night prior had left his hair and clothes clinging to his body.

"I really need a shower," was Gary's first thought as he pocketed the pokéball. Phantom reflections of his disheveled state lingered on in his mind. He fought the urge to keep looking at himself; the sight having inspired a sort of morbid curiosity in his pitiful look.

"I hope you're okay, gramps," he muttered, looking for his grandfather somewhere in the clouds. "He'll be fine. Ash's Pokémon are with him on the ranch. Rowan's gonna be safe too. Dora and Crystal have my Pokémon are with them on the island." Gary did his best not to consider the other alternative, the idea that the would-be protectors had killed the very ones he was hoping they would protect.

"Eureka!" Newton yelled, breaking Gary from his train of thought.

"What did you find?" he asked, the clang of metal answering him at first.

"Our ticket out of here!" the scientist eventually yelled back. With their interest suitably piqued, Paul and Gary shambled over towards the scientist. The small trip there was a collection of winces, grunts and sharp intakes of breath. Hours of running and stumbling in the dark had left their bodies sore and aching. Were it not for the fact that they had years of traveling everywhere by foot under their belts, they would've been unable to move that morning. Scuffed and standing before Newton was a rhomboid platform with a control column sticking vertically from the front. If Gary didn't know any better, he would have thought it to be some sort of bizarre lawnmower.

"And this is supposed to be?" Paul grumbled.

"This is a hover scooter," Newton proudly announced.

Paul raised an eyebrow at the dilapidated state of the vehicle.

As if anticipating the trainer's response, Newton followed up. "It's a little beat up, but its structural integrity should be enough to support all of us for the ride to the nearest town."

"Should?" Paul groused, having had his fill of death-defying situations for a lifetime.

"Don't worry. Infi's done the math."

"I have factored in our combined total weight, distance of our destination, and possible w-w-wind resistance—" Infi began before her stammer cut her sentence short. An awkward silence filled the air until Newton's nervous chuckle saw fit to join it.

"Infi took some damage before I uploaded her into my backpack. But I assure you that you can trust her calculations," he replied.

Gary watched the backpack's robotic arms come together. Two slender arms capped with three stiletto-sharp metallic digits emerged from lower ports in his backpack. Sprouting from the two upper ports were bulky two-fingered arms. A symphony of clicks, clatters and whirrs played as the metallic digits slid over each other. If the young researcher didn't know any better, he could've sworn the AI was embarrassed at her verbal mishap.

"Comforting," Paul spat as he let himself plop down onto the grass. "And how exactly do you expect us to get on that thing while you fly?"

"Well, I figured you two could stand"— the final word evoked an instant glare from the two teens—"or sit here on the sides. There's enough room," Newton said as he tapped the area with his foot for emphasis.

"Wonderful," Paul growled. "I feel safer already." The boy from Veilstone glowered at the grass in silence.

Undeterred, Newton hopped onto the platform, fingers already dancing along the control panel between the handles. A few commands later, the craft hummed to life, floating off the ground without so much as a single blade of grass shifting from its liftoff. "She should do fine. So…who wants to go for a ride?"

Both teens threw the man skeptical looks, albeit one of them was more scathing than the other. Unable to think of any better option they sighed and made their way over to the researcher.

***

Gary was used to high speeds and flying. Having ridden throughout most of the Kanto region in a sports car and on the back of an Arcanine had helped him grew accustomed to g-forces acting on his body. The former trainer had also flown atop several of his own flying Pokémon in his younger years, removing much of the fear he'd had of heights.

Paul on the other hand did not seem to share the same kind of conditioning. The lavender haired youth gripped the edges of the platform until his fingers went white. He shivered beneath the wind, fighting to keep his teeth clenched together lest anyone hear them chatter and show weakness.

Infi had recommended that they keep several miles above the ground to avoid coming in contact with any wild Pokémon, and those that did manage to see them would be unable to effectively aim at a small and quickly moving target.

Despite his prior flight experience, Gary hadn't flown nearly enough to grow accustomed to the chilly air and fierce gales at high altitudes. After hours of flying, Gary felt his face go completely numb.

Newton's legs had eventually given out as well, forcing him to sit down with them with his back to the wind while Infi steered the hovercraft from her maker's backpack. The craft swerved back and forth, maneuvering through the mountainous terrain. Abrupt turns had forced the teens to wrap an arm around the central pole. The bitter cold forced the duo to alternate arms for fear that their numbed limbs would slacken and they would slide off the platform.

When the duo had finally gathered the courage to peer down, they saw grassy plains and empty dirt roads. Infi scanned the terrain but found no trace of life, let alone signs that the roads had been used. The AI had also taken the liberty of scanning Newton and Gary's Pokémon, finding that all of them were still unconscious. Their vitals looked promising but there was no clear indicator as to when they would awaken.

Paul's Pokémon were soundly asleep, having kept guard for them the entire night. Were they to encounter any hostile Pokémon, his party would be their first line of defense, but the fatigue from the previous day put them at a disadvantage. Paul insisted that they could handle it, ignoring Infi's comments that a tactic like that would be ill-advised.

Gary found his thoughts wandering back to Orreburgh and his team there. He was sure they were fine; the biodome had been reinforced several times to make sure none of the prehistoric Pokémon could escape again. The wild Pokémon of the area were weak, making it a suitable place for starting trainers to begin their journey.

The fear of attackers was minimal but the shadow of doubt nonetheless lurked in the darkest corners of his mind and tantalized the sinister parts of his imagination. The hovercraft's sudden deceleration shook him from his train of thought. Gary looked down and laid eyes on a vast and desolate swamp.

"We must be near Pastoria," Gary thought.

"Infi, why are we stop—" Newton screamed, never finishing his sentence as the hovercraft plunged towards the earth.

The rushing wind now came from below them, throwing their hair into a frantic dance. The craft tilted downwards giving them a full view of the swampland below them, everyone's bodies began to lift over the hovercraft as it raced towards the earth.

"Infi!" Newton screamed over the wind, feeling Gary grab his pant leg while one of Infi's heavy arms grabbed Paul.

"Power to hovercraft has been…completely depleted," the AI informed him, a hint of fear showing in her synthetic voice.

"Infi," Newton said her name softer this time, knowing she would at least be able to read his lips if her audio receptors couldn't hear him over the wind. "Is there anything we can do?"

Hundreds of scenarios flashed through her mind as she attempted to process a solution. There was less than a minute left before impact and no guarantee that any of their Pokémon —conscious or not — would help them in this particular situation.

Having no data on Gary's other Pokémon, and with no time to find out, Infi's options were limited. Time seemed to slow as seconds stretched into agonizing hours as she worked to find a way to save all of them; the prospect of having a single survivor was unacceptable and a short-sighted solution in the long run.

"Newton!" Gary screamed, praying that the researcher had something up his sleeve to save them. As the ground drew closer and the seconds flew by, Newton's silence spoke more and more to the young researcher.

"I'm gonna die," Gary's body shuddered at the all-encompassing thought that echoed through his mind, vision already swimming. He would've thrown up had there been anything in his stomach. Barring that, a painful knot formed there. "It's not fair. There's so much I still want to do. I don't even get to say goodbye to Gramps or Ash. Crystal, Rowan, Kanta, Dora…"

Paul's mind frantically fought to find a solution, refusing to scream as his view of the world enlarged before him.

Weavile's Ice Beam could make me a—

—No.

Dammit!

We're coming in too fas—

Ursaring!

Maybe his Hyper Beam could—

—No.

—it hasn't even been a full day yet.

—He used all his energy to make the tun—.

Gliscor!

He could fly me out of—

—I'm too heavy for him to glide! Wait!

He could use Sandstorm to—

There's no sand for him to use!

No.

No!

I can't die now!

Not here!

Not yet!

I have to find him!

I still need to destroy him for what he did!

I have to…

I need to…

I can't…

"Reggie," Paul whispered, hoping it was lost to the rushing wind around them.

A flash of light shone over them from above, followed quickly by something powerful and furry wrapping around everyone's midsections just before they slammed into the earth. Gary opened his eyes and found his legs dangling just above the murky waters below. His breathing and heartbeat suddenly sounded obnoxiously loud in the silence.

The youngest Oak's eyes lifted up, finding the world around him veiled in green. The effect was over quickly as the protective barrier around them dissolved and allowed an influx of smells and sounds to come through. Gary turned his head and found a pair of crimson eyes staring at him intently.

"E…Electivire?" Gary found himself asking.

"Vire," the Thunderbolt Pokémon nodded with a smile.

"I'm alive…I'm alive!" was all Gary's mind seemed to fit to say at the moment as his Pokémon placed him on a drier patch of ground. Paul, being held in the other arm, was placed next to him soon after. The lightning ogre turned to show them his back, currently being occupied by Newton and Infi with a pair of black tails wrapped around the researcher's waist. Paul stared at them in disgust as Electivire's unraveled his tails from around him and planted him gingerly on the ground before them.

"What was that?" Paul snarled through breaths.

"The hovercraft's power core must've been damaged in the Megarig's destruction. Some energy must've leaked," Newton replied.

"That information would've been nice to know before we were flying miles above the ground!" Paul roared.

"We must've overlooked it, but that doesn't matter now. We're alive."

"It does matter! How do we know we can even trust you and your damaged computer program? How do we know it's not going to keep giving us wrong information!?"

"She's in the process of repairing the damages she sustained," Newton replied. His voice suddenly took on a chillier tone that brooked no argument. "If she wasn't here, I would still have made the same decision with the hovercraft. You all agreed, seeing as you didn't want to walk the rest of the way in the state you were in. With her input or not, the result would have been the same. Luckily, Gary's Pokémon was able to save us in time."

"Newton, it's—" Infi began.

"No, Infi. It was my call in the end. I'll take responsibility if that's what's really important right now."

"Fine. Whatever," Paul huffed, throwing his gaze to the only other brunette in their group. "What's the status of the rest of your party?"

"I…I don't know. But let's find out," Gary replied.

***

Traveling by Blastoise was very different from the hovercraft. For one, the ride was much bumpier than before, although no one dared to complain, seeing as anything was better than trekking through the lagoon. Blastoise had laid down, retracting his limbs but leaving his water cannons out and aimed at the ground directly behind them.

Electivire was mounted atop the shell, three of his limbs dedicated to grabbing onto its surface to the best of his ability. His remaining free arm and two tails were given the task of acting as seatbelts for the three other riders. Skarmory flew overhead, tasked with scanning the swamp and informing them of anything of interest.

Infi assisted by scanning the area constantly, informing them that she did not detect any lifeforms around them. Paul scoffed, going straight to work on making contingency plans for any occurrence.

For the most part the ride was quiet and uneventful, the dull rocket-engine roar of Blastoise gradually faded into the background. Everyone kept to themselves and left to their own devices. With nothing but silence and time they eventually had to deal with the thoughts they had harbored during the fall.

Although she did not show it, Infi found their brush with death the most traumatizing. The others had depended on her for accurate intel; her earlier mishap could've cost them their lives had it not been for Electivire's earlier intervention. There wouldn't always be someone there to save them if she miscalculated again.

Infi knew she could blame it on the older parts of her programming that had been used to replace the corrupted sectors. She could blame it on her new vessel, so small and defenseless in comparison to the Megarig's vast degree of resources and space for her memory. She could blame it on a number of variables. But none of it would change what had actually happened.

What she found worse was how the event had forced her to be at odds with her hardcoded directive: everyone must survive. In many of the scenarios she had generated, most of them suggested that the survival of one person was possible — and the best course of action. But if only one could survive, who would she pick?

There were several logical and illogical reasons to save her creator. The latter being the more sentimental side of her being. On the more logical side, if she chose Newton, there would be no guarantee that Paul or Gary's Pokémon would help them — should they even survive the fall. Without them, her maker would be alone, poorly protected and potentially outnumbered in a cruel and unforgiving world.

Paul was the next logical choice due to his team. They were well trained from what she had seen, but they were few in number and already exhausted from keeping watch. She only knew of one Pokémon in Gary's party; the chances that he would awake in time and be able to help them were slim.

The remaining members of his team were a mystery to her and as such, she couldn't bring herself to even consider him as an option. The sentimental part of her programming was sickened at having to rank them but the logical and analytic part of her knew she had little choice. At the speed they were falling, their deaths would be fast and painless, but not hers.

The fall would not be enough to completely destroy her newest vessel, only cripple the hardware and leave the software intact. She would be entombed in her new body and forced to watch, helpless, as the others decayed and deteriorated under time and the elements. She would watch as the days went by and the world beyond them burned. No one would find and recover their bodies in this swamp.

Eventually, without power and maintenance, her systems would falter and fail. Her vessel would rust before her eyes and fall apart and she would join them in death. If the seconds of their fall had felt like hours, then this fate would've lasted several eternities.

What stung most was that Paul had been right about her. How could they trust her? How could she trust herself?

***

Newton's set of issues were slightly different from those of the others. While everyone had feared the fact that their life was going to end, he felt strangely at peace. It bothered him to be so comfortable with the act of dying.

The wish to of had more time were present but failed to rise to the forefront of his concerns. He knew he should've cared more, knew it should've bothered him that all his research would be lost upon his passing. And it did, but only to a small degree.

When Infi had confessed to not having a solution to their impending fate, he accepted it without struggle. He knew his AI's abilities better than anyone, so when she told him that there was nothing that could be done; it was because she had considered every possible scenario and found that nothing would change their fate.

To think that he'd braved a strange alternate dimension, dodged deadly seas of miasma and avoided being destroyed by that realm's only guardian — and ended up dying from a fall. The one thing that had brought him any solace was that he would be able to apologize.

"I'll be there soon, Zero," Newton remembered whispering.

***

Skarmory's sudden squawk from above drew everyone out of their thoughts. Everyone's eyes darted back and forth, expecting an onset of attackers to swarm at them from all sides. Finding none, they all shifted their gazes back to the iron avian who had descended towards the area a few meters from them.

Electivire squinted for a moment before knocking on Blastoise's shell, signaling the water-tortoise to slow. Water from his jets sputtered and stopped, his remaining momentum letting him slide up to an embankment that seemed to span the length of the swamp. Standing at its summit was Skarmory, tentatively pecking at the ground. Each peck prompted a soft clang that drew everyone's focus. With a single bound off Blastoise's shell, Electivire and his passengers joined Skarmory at the top.

"A railroad! Gary cried out in awe, surprising himself in how much relief leaked out of his voice.

"We can follow this straight to the nearest town," Newton added happily.

"But what way would that be?" Paul's sobering question came soon after.

"I can see about accessing a satellite to…" Infi's voice suddenly trailed off. The others waited expectantly for her to finish while Gary returned his exhausted starter.

"Infi? What's wrong?" Newton involuntarily shuddered. For Infi to trail off like that was the harbinger of bad news.

"I…I can't seem to access any local satellites," Infi replied, as if unsure of her own answer.

Paul scoffed and rolled his eyes, earning a scathing glare from Newton before he began to speak again. "Is that part of your systems still damaged?"

"Everything appears fine. There shouldn't be any complications unless…" Infi trailed off.

"Unless?" Gary pressed the AI for more info, his interest suitably piqued.

"Unless there are no satellites to connect to."

The group's gazes went to the skies as if expecting debris to start raining down on them on that moment. Skarmory squawked once more.

"Train detected," Infi announced, as her the HUD eyepiece swung out and scanned the area.

"Great! We can hitch a ride to the next town and let people know what happened in Hearthome," Newton replied

"Sounds almost too easy," Paul said as he scowled. After all the travails he had weathered, a free ride that was practically handed to him sounded suspicious.

And sure enough, Infi began to speak. "Train's inbound velocity is well in excess of regulation speed limit."

"And there it is," Paul grumbled, already backing away from the railway.

"Infi, is there anything coming after them?" Newton asked.

"I do not detect any hostile pursuers but it appears that the train has taken damage."

"Anyone on the train?"

"I am picking up two heat signatures."

"Whatever they're trying to get away from, they're trying to do it fast. Let's see if they'll stop!" Newton said, waving his arms back and forth.

"They won't stop," Paul muttered under his breath, making his way to the youngest Oak. "Get ready to have your Pokémon get us on that train. Your Skarmory and Electivire should be able to do the job."

"We should be in the passenger's visual range," Infi said. She paused briefly to scan the speeding train again. "They are not reducing speed."

"Infi, grab Skarmory. She'll get you and Newton onto that carriage. Electivire, grab Paul and me and do the same!" Gary ordered. Both pokémon nodded in unison and burst into action.

Skarmory's talons were outstretched and quickly met with Infi's metallic hands. Electivire wrapped both trainers in a tight embrace, his twin black tails raised behind him and glowing. Skarmory drew close to the train while Newton hung from below with Infi's metallic arms.

"Now!" Infi prompted, releasing her grip from the iron bird and hoping her calculations were correct. Although on target, Newton's inability to stick the landing had not been part of Infi's equation. Her maker tumbled across the carriage's surface, getting dangerously close to its edge. The AI worked fast; the two heavy manipulator arms shot out and grabbed onto a railing that ran along the edge of the train, anchoring Newton to the carriage.

Electivire bent his legs before launching off the ground, slamming his tails against the earth for an added boost. Infi's arms pulled her maker's body the rest of the way onto the carriage's roof. The dents she left in the railing a testament to their strength.

But it was almost all for naught, when over three hundred pounds of electric muscle landed in their midst and caved in the metal roof, causing Newton to stumble and nearly fall off a second time.

Gary made his way to the front of the carriage and peered over the edge.

"Electivire, get the door!"

The Thunderbolt Pokémon nodded, making his way over to the side entrance and slamming his fist through the metal as if it were no tougher than tinfoil. Glass shattered and metal screeched as he pulled the door off its hinges with utmost ease. Newton was the first to go in, needing no assistance from Electivire as Infi's arms allowed him to swing into the entrance with the grace of a gymnast.

Two people cowered at his presence from the other side of the carriage. One was a dark-haired gentleman using his body to eclipse a pudgier red-haired woman.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" the man screamed.

"I'm terribly sorry about this, it's just that my companions and I have been through a lot lately and they really wanted to get in here," Newton replied.

"Don't be an ass, Eugene. They've got Pokémon with them, they might be able help us," the woman admonished.

"Don't you get it? Even with their Pokémon here, they're just going to going to end up getting us killed."

"Sir, I assure you that our Pokémon are quite tame and powerful. We mean you no harm, and anything that is chasing you may be well within our ability to handle."

"That's not the problem here!" Eugene howled as Paul and Gary were swung into the train with Electivire's shaggy yellow hands. "You and your Pokémon are gonna weigh us down and let the Drapion catch up with this carriage!"

"Drapion?" Gary asked aloud, suddenly feeling like the dumbest person in the room when everyone silently turned towards him in unison and stared. "Sorry, I'm not from this region."

"Drapion, the Ogre Scorp pokémon. Its claws give off a deadly poison and they are powerful enough to turn an automobile into scrap iron. With its sturdy body, Drapion takes pride in its strength, defeating opponents without the need for poison," Infi replied, reminding Gary a lot his old pokédex's virtual intelligence, Dexter. "Its abilities include Battle Armor, Keen Eye, and Sniper."

Eugene and the woman were about to remark about where the fourth voice had come from when as if on cue the window behind them shattered.

Everyone's stances shifted away from the source of the noise, save the redheaded woman who stumbled into Eugene's arms. Angry screeches filled the air as Skarmory came down their apparent attacker. Sounds of struggle faded into the distance as the carriage flew down the railway. Everything fell silent until Skarmory unleashed a crow of triumph in the distance.

"Marcie? Marcie what's…" Eugene began until the girl's body slumped in his arms and her head tilted back to reveal a glowing foot-long needle protruding from her eye and out the back of her head. Dark purple splotches spread from the affected area as the Drapion venom liquefied her flesh upon contact.

"Shit. Shit! Shit! Fucking shit!" Eugene babbled as his legs lost strength. His companion's body slid from his hold, resting on the floor at everyone's feet. Gary could only stare as the venom spread through her body, reducing the woman to little more than a necrotic bag of liquefied organs held together by her skin.

"You fuckers killed her! She's dead because of you!" Eugene blubbered.

"Gary, your dark types. Out, now!" Paul barked as he whirled around to face Newton. "Infi, what attacks does his Shieldon know?"

"Ice Beam, Flash Cannon, Tac—" Infi began without missing a beat.

"Good enough," the trainer interjected, turning to face Gary once more.

"What are you just standing for? Get your Umbreon and Houndoom out and get your Electivire in here!"

Gary nodded weakly, still somewhat shaken at seeing someone die right in front of him and reached for his pokéballs. With two bursts of light his dark types were out by the time Electivire had swung into the carriage, the force of his landing causing the entire room to shift.

"Gary, does your Electivire know Light Screen?" Paul asked.

"I…" Gary scrambled through his memories, wondering if he had ever ordered him to use that move. Getting no immediate answer, Paul growled and roughly shoved Gary aside as he went straight to the source.

"I'll ask you then. Can you use Light Screen?"

Electivire nodded, glancing back and forth between Gary and Paul.

"Aside from Protect, what other moves does he know?" Paul asked as he kept his back to the young researcher.

"Thunderbolt and Thunderpunch."

Paul's shoulders slumped momentarily at the info, "Does movepool variety mean anything to you? Whatever. He at least knows Light Screen. Electivire, make a series of them along the back of the carriage. Make at least three layers. And at no point in time are you to use an electric move!" Paul ordered, shifting his focus to the dark type duo behind him. "Umbreon, can you use Reflect?"

The Eeveelution nodded, evoking a small and brief smile from the Sinnohvian youth. "All right. Get topside with Houndoom! Do the same as Electivire with your Reflect but on the other side of the wall where he will place his Light Screen. Houndoom, I want you to lay down suppressing fire if you see any Drapion! If you have to set the damn swamp on fire to slow them down, do it! Make sure Umbreon finishes laying down the same number of layers for the barrier. See if you can signal Skarmory to come in!"

Both Pokémon nodded and made their way to the side entrance of the carriage that Electivire had made for them. Umbreon leapt out, landing on a psionic platform that materialized beneath her. Houndoom soon followed, although he was rather hesitant to throw himself off of a high-speed carriage and onto a questionably stable translucent platform.

Two dull thuds from the ceiling signaled Paul that his pieces were in place as Gary approached him.

"Paul, I appreciate you having a plan but you can't just start telling my Pokémon wha—"

The trainer in question was suddenly in Gary's face, his nose almost touching Gary's own.

"If you have a problem with me telling your Pokémon what to do, actually order them to do something before I have to." Paul's tone was cold and authoritarian.

"Hey wait, why didn't you want his Pokémon to use electric moves?" Eugene felt the need to intervene. "It would help, wouldn't it? Right? Wouldn't that kill those bastards?"

Paul slowly turned away from Gary to give the man a withering gaze, as though he had been insulted.

"This carriage is electrically conductive. Electivire is generally grounded when it releases an electrical attack. An electrical attack performed in this carriage would electrocute us," Infi replied.

Paul gave a curt nod in Newton's direction before making his way over to him. "Newton, since we don't know if the body is contaminated, I'm going to need you to throw it out of the carriage."

Eugene immediately leapt to his feet and moved into a defensive stance around Marcie's body. "You're not throwing her out! We've gotta give her a proper burial. It's the least you fuckers could do; she's dead because of you!"

Paul wheeled around and stomped over to Eugene. "She's dead because the Drapion chasing you got a good shot. You have a lot nerve to accuse us of being dead weight on this carriage, especially when you're guarding some right now. Whatever you two had is done now; she's dead and having her corpse won't help us unless one of you can cobble up a bomb, strap it to her and deliver that to the Drapion. I have half a mind to throw you off too if you're so set on staying with her! If the Drapion catch up burying her won't be an option! We're going to need every asset we can get and we need to get rid of any hindrance we can find."

Paul was now in the man's face, close enough to count his eyebrows. The man was a head taller than Paul but that didn't seem to care.

"And right now, you're starting to look like a liability. You have two choices: make yourself useful so we can all make it out here alive. Or stay out of our way. You can die for all I care; this world won't miss a waste of space like you." His voice was now absolutely frigid, as if he were contemplating killing Eugene himself with his bare hands.

"Hey now, that's outta of line!" Newton interjected. He was willing to tolerate Paul's brutally pragmatic approach to a certain extent but the way he acted around Eugene was making him uncomfortable.

"Then I'd like to see him prove me wrong. We don't have the luxury right now of mourning her death. This time, I'll ask again nicely. Infi, please remove the body from the carriage. You and I both know it'll buy us another few seconds. It may not sound like a lot, but we need all the time we can get."

Despite the researcher's protests, Infi's four arms went straight to work. One of her heavy arms grabbed hold of Marcie's clothing and lifted the body clean off the ground. The other three arms formed a defensive perimeter around Newton. Six stiletto-sharp digits and an arm capable of mangling steel kept the man at bay. Eugene's arm lifted and fell countless times as he silently pleaded with the AI to spare her. His mouth opened and closed like a Magikarp gasping for breath as he watched Newton, moving as if he were under control by his backpack-mounted AI, cover the last few feet to the mutilated side door.

It was then the world suddenly went into slow motion. The whirring of Infi's heavy arm seemed to drag on as he watched the two bulky digits slowly opening. He watched as Marcie's body hung in midair before it tumbled out onto the side of the tracks and receded into the distance. Despite it seeming to take an eternity, it was all over in mere seconds.

It was as though something had been physically ripped out of Eugene as he helplessly watched her body ejected from the carriage and into the blurring world beyond. His body slumped bonelessly onto one of the few surviving purple chairs and started to sob. Newton kept his gaze trained on the floor.

He didn't know the woman but Eugene's sadness over her loss was almost palpable. It served as a reminder of his own personal loss not only a few hours ago. Most surprising of all was Paul's ability to adapt to all of this on the fly. Newton understood Paul's logic; hell he could almost agree with it, but the utter lack of compassion was unsettling.

"Gary and him around the same age," Newton muttered as glanced between the two and wondered what could've happened in the trainer's life that had molded him into this way.

The youngest Oak had moved over to try and comfort the sobbing man while Paul inspected the integrity of the carriage itself.

"Hey, it's…" Gary trailed off, struggling for words that weren't empty promises and beautiful lies.

"They're probably eating her now." Eugene shuddered. "And they're gonna eat us too. Oh Arceus. "

"They won't eat her," Paul commented offhandedly, peering through a tiny hole in the metal wall — probably made by the fatal projectile.

What little comfort that sentence offered Eugene was shattered by his next statement. "Drapion only eat once a year, so they might actually be taking some time to tear her apart."

"Paul!" Gary yelled, "You're not helping."

"But she is." Paul smiled. It was not a smile of joy. A cold, cruel smile utterly devoid of empathy. "The few seconds the Drapion take to rip her apart will let us put bit more distance between them and us. There, is that comforting?"

"How do you even know they're coming?" Gary yelled as he stared past Paul and his Electivire's Light Screens into an empty horizon.

"Trust me, they're coming. The one your Skarmory killed was a scout."

"A scout? For what?"

"Drapion are territorial by nature. This sudden increase of power going through the Pokémon of this region may have encouraged them to expand their territory," Infi replied, earning a nod from Paul.

"As soon as they notice their scout is taking too long, they'll come and investigate this area. When they find the body, they'll be after us in full force," Paul said.

"How do you know so much about Drapion?" Gary demanded.

"My…" Paul's body stiffened as he spoke, his eyebrows furrowed before he recovered with the thought of his next words. "I knew a trainer who raised one. They're dangerous, even more so if they're in a horde but you never actually try and catch Drapion, even if it's by itself. You catch a Skorupi, earn its trust and affection and evolve it from there." Paul's gaze looked distant, his tutorial stirring something inside him before being snuffed out with his next sentence. "They were dangerous before and this power surge will only make them worse."

There was a moment of silence while everyone took the information in. Eugene seemed to have aged in the time of their meeting; the newfound knowledge coupled with his imagination wreaking havoc on his health. His hands trembled as he hastily rubbed his hands all over to stave off the sudden chill. Gary worried he would go catatonic on them.

"Eugene, where is this train headed?" Gary inquired, placing a hand on the man's shoulder. The question stirred him from his mental ramblings and evoked a sudden hope inside him.

"It goes to the Croagunk Festival site. Me and…" Eugene's eyes shimmered for a moment before he shook his head. "Others fled there from Pastoria. None of our phones seemed to work and our Croagunk had passed out. Even the local gym leader's Pokémon were out of commission. We barely made it there with the clothes on our backs. Some of us were wounded and we needed medicine, so we organized a group to go back in and find some since they weren't stable enough to be moved. It was fine until we got to Pastoria, then they came at us and tore straight through…" Eugene trailed off as the painful memories surged to the forefront.

"Good. Wake's there. He might be useful." Paul muttered. His thoughts were suddenly cut short when a chorus of roars reached his ears. "Well, it looks like they caught up." Paul smirked as the familiar electric surge of adrenaline ran through his body.

"Standby for battle."


	7. Crazy Train

Strips of black and purple carapace littered the embankment. The railway and grass were coated in a thick, viscous green film. An arm here, a bobbing piece of head there, and several other chunks were decaying beneath the swamp's murky waters. Several shadows converged upon the macabre scene; whatever had killed the Drapion had made sure to eviscerate it with gusto.

The alpha Drapion peered into the distance, following the string of innards that traced the railroad. He turned to face the horde of Drapion behind him, patiently awaiting his next command. The alpha ogre scorp raised his long and spiny arms and rotated the upper half of his body until he faced away from the swarm.

In single fluid motion he brought his claws down on himself, his hardened exoskeleton cracking under the mighty blow. The others in the swarm nodded and began to do the same, turning around and striking at the closest adjacent Drapion once they finished their own strikes.

The grotesque cracking echoed around the dismal swamp. Like a purple breeze they moved through the swamp, leaving the body of their fallen comrade amidst the tufts of dirt and grass that sprayed through the air.

***

Suffice to say, Paul was actually feeling fairly good about himself. He finally felt in control of his situation and things seemed to finally be going his way. Their defenses were set into place and the Drapion chasing them had yet to appear. Even if they did, there was little chance of them outrunning the train and tipping them over. Additional layers could be applied to their defense before they were completely spent.

That said; the sudden sound of a hundred needles deflecting off their rear barriers had forced him to back away from them. Everyone's hearts seemed to seize at the concerto of pings. Fear froze them in place as the barriers withstood the assault. Paul began to relax; but not too much. He had considered that the barriers may fail, requiring him to dodge the lethal barrage.

Paul's carefully gathered confidence dissolved to the sound of one of the side windows shattering. The Sinnohvian trainer's muscles tensed as he prepared to dodge. He never got the chance. Before his head had even moved a inch, Infi's mechanical arm shot forward and caught the glowing purple needle meant for his head. Without a word Electivire cast another Light Screen over the opening in their defenses. Torrents of fire flew to the Drapion that attacked them. The Ogre Scorp ducked under the river of flames and backed away, letting the train's own speed turn what was certain to be a direct hit into a miss.

"I…I miscalculated." Paul's eyes widened as he lost his balance and fell to the floor. Infi would've offered him a hand up were it not for another needle flying through the thin metal wall and towards Gary. Lacking the reach, she threw the poisoned needle clutched in her hand towards the speeding projectile. It was a direct hit; upon impact, both lethal needles veered off into different corners of the room. Another torrent of flame licked the landscape, missing its intended target once more as it retreated back to the horde.

"How did you…" Gary shook his head in disbelief. He could barely speak from the shock of nearly being stung and the utterly superhuman task he had just observed Infi perform.

"Tracked the velocity of incoming needle, calculated its trajectory, determined force needed to cause deviation in safe direction and calculated velocity of own projectile required to impart said force," Infi replied.

"They're not supposed to be this fast," Paul muttered, apparently unimpressed by Infi's superhuman precision.

"Agreed. Even with potential speed and strength boost from limiter removal factored in, their movements exceed known and even estimated parameters. I detect several punctures in their exoskeleton along the spine. Angle of incision and residue from claws suggests the wounds are self-inflicted."

"Acupressure. How could I've been so stupid!?" Paul growled, getting to his feet. He took care to avoid the walls despite the layers of Light Screens.

"Acupuncture?" Gary asked.

"Acupressure, although it's almost basically the same. It's a pokémon move that Skorupi know before they evolve into Drapion. It gives whoever's struck by their claws in a certain spot a large but random and temporary boost to a stat or accuracy. They must've done it to themselves and each other," Paul replied. His brain seethed as he formulated, analyzed, modified, and discarded [revious battle plans, taking this new and dangerous discovery to mind.

***

The Drapion were upon them without warning. One second the swamp stretched into the distance; the next a purple horde materialized around them. A wall of fire rose from the path of Houndoom's Flamethrower attack, succeeding into forcing one side of the swarm to retreat, but creating an opening for the others to move in.

Umbreon had started placing barriers over the shattered windows and to the rear of the train, lest they become pin cushions in the next few seconds. The unending assault on the rear shattered her barriers just as quickly as she made them. Another column of flames licked the open air, the glow and heat of the flames being the only things to reach the ogre scorp as it cartwheeled out of the way.

Blades of air carved into the marshy landscape, missing their intended targets as they deftly dodged out of their destructive path. The Drapion below had no such problems, though their attacks eventually proved to be equally futile. Poisoned or not, their needles pinged harmlessly off Skarmory's metallic body. After centuries of nesting in thorn bushes, Skarmory gained bodies as hard as the finest steel.

Umbreon could only watch Houndoom continue his attempts at funneling the horde into Skarmory's supposed killzone. Aside from keeping their eroding defenses up there was little Umbreon could do offensively. Most of her moves were physical ones and the ones that weren't would do little against their opponents. The few ranged attacks she had would only miss — if her comrade's attempts were anything to go off of.

As a result, she eyed the swarm's movements, watching them endlessly advance and sneak in an attack before they were forced to retreat. Houndoom's breathing was started to grow more and more ragged with every Flamethrower he unleashed. It wouldn't be long before he ran out of strength to keep up the onslaught going but the Drapion looked no worse for wear.

Taking a chance, he reared his head back, and a roiling sphere of fire appeared in his toothy maw. Skarmory watched the Fire Blast fly from him and into the midst of the tailing horde. The massive cruciform fireball swallowed the slower half of the horde along with several meters of swamp behind them, igniting a surprisingly large brushfire. A weary smile curved along Houndoom's bowed head. Anything that survived the direct blast would be roasted by the brushfire. Any survivors of the two fires would be left with burns that would never heal — courtesy of Houdoom's flames.

A handful of Drapion had ducked and cartwheeled ahead of the attack. If losing their comrades had affected them in the slightest they did not show it. For good measure, Skarmory threw several volleys of wind blades into inferno. Umbreon stared at their remaining pursuers, satisfied at the much more manageable number.

"We just might make it out of this okay. We might just win this!" Umbreon thought to herself as one of the Drapion broke rank and fell behind the rest. Its actions were not lost on the dark Eeveelution. She kept her red gaze in on its stationary form as it shrunk into the distance while the rest of its brood advanced.

Its arms were stretched out in from of its face, the claws at the end of each limb linking together at the tips and forming an oval within the gap. The Drapion's tail stabbed into the ground as its head reeled back, keeping its head level with the gap in its claws. It wasn't until it was already too late that Umbreon realized its claws were forming a reticule.

The eeveelution heard the attack sheath into its target before she saw it. She turned quickly and found Houndoom still standing beside her, his lifeless eyes gazing forward. Tiny beads of blood formed between his brows. A gentle thump was heard as his legs gave way, letting his body slump lifelessly. Dark red blood pooled out the side of his head. Red droplets flew like rain as the rushing wind whipped his blood into the air.

"But…how could...?" Her mind scrambled as she looked back to her barriers, finding cracks already beginning to spiderweb from the point of impact. She could see the pinprick sized indentation in the shimmering walls. A slight jostle from the train proved enough to shatter all three of her layered barriers, leaving an open window for the Drapion.

Umbreon was suddenly thrown back by a massive impact. She gasped and grunted as she tumbled along the length of the carriage's roof. With her heart pounding painfully against her chest and her vision beginning to blur, she struggled to stay awake as she gazed down.

A glowing purple spike was embedded in her fur

***

Skarmory swooped down on the Drapion sniper only to be knocked her out of the air by one of its companions. The armored bird slammed into the embankment and skidded against the railway. Her iron talons tore through dirt and wood as she fluttered to her feet, knowing she needed to take to the air as soon as she could. The ogre scorp barreled towards her in much the same way she had seen Electabuzz move with his knuckles to the ground.

She gave a single flap and watched the Drapion tackle the empty air where she'd been only a second before. She'd only made it a few meters off the ground when she saw a pair of Drapion no longer chasing the train in the distance. A third Drapion stood a ways away from the duo before closing the distance with alarming speed.

The trio dipped their bodies and rotated back, shifting forward in unison when the blurry figure of the other Drapion made his way over their lowered arms. In a single fluid motion they lifted their brother into the air just as Skarmory felt something hook and drag her back down. She glanced down to find the drapion's tail claw clamped onto her ankle, wriggling towards the earth in hopes to ground her once more.

With little time to think and plan, Skarmory frantically flapped her wings and shook her leg in vain hopes of dislodging her newest unwanted passenger. Their combined weight was too much and the Drapion sunk his claws into the ground, rotating his upper body to twist her around. Another Drapion tackled the iron avian to the ground, wrapping his thick arms around her neck.

The other two Drapion were at her side in a matter of seconds, each one taking a metallic wing into their claws.

"This one's smells like wunna us," one of the Drapion hissed.

"Ya reckon she tore our scout apart?" another roared.

"Figure she did. You know what I say boys. One good deed deserves another. Let's show her why it ain't nice ta pull otha folks apart!" a third one screeched, his jittering jaws curling with obvious mirth.

"Dibs on the last leg!" howled a fourth one, his claws clicking against her only free limb. Skarmory struggled helplessly against the grasp. Her fears were confirmed when she began to feel them all pulling at her at once.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Please—noImsorrynople—I—letmeg—noImsorry—it hurts! Pleasdon't—Ahaaaaaaaaah!" Skarmory's pleading was cut short by the sound of her own screams. Her metallic skin whined in protest at first, eventually screaming louder than her own choked voice. Metal-laced muscle and metallic skin were soon stretched to their tensile limits as the Drapion began pulling harder. Soon, the whining of tortured metal was replaced with rapid-fire metallic pings as her skin and muscle began to rip like the strands of an overstretched cable

And then with a metallic snap like a gunshot, metal-reinforced tendons and ligaments gave way as steely bones were torn from their mountings. Blood spewed onto the Drapion as they wrestled the limbs off her body, the crimson spray coating their open mouths and bodies, goading them into pulling with more fervor.

All the while the Drapion that held her head stared down at her. He smiled as he drank in her agony. Her tortured screams never made far past her throat, the arms that choked her allowed her to breathe but locked her in place while the others pulled.

In the burning-white pain that filled her mind she realized why he hadn't joined in on the tug of war with her body, why he hadn't pulled off her head with the rest of her body. He wanted her to live through this for as long as she could. In the voiceless pain that blanketed her thoughts, only one managed to pierce the hazy cloud: please let me die.

***

"Infi, how long can you keep this up?" Newton murmured as the metallic appendages whirled around him, looking more like grey fans than spindly metal arms. A pile of the lethal purple needles was scattered around his feet. Several more were scattered throughout the carriage. The darts that she caught were used to knock other oncoming projectiles out of the way. The ones that couldn't be caught were simply swatted out of the air.

"Not long," Infi replied. "Moving at this speed drains your backpack's internal battery. Without direct sunlight to recharge it, I won't be able to keep up this much speed for much longer."

"Newton, we need Shieldon out now!" Paul yelled from around Gary's Nidoking, his thick and powerful arms now wrapped protectively around the trainer and his master while the needles pinged harmlessly off his thick purple hide.

"Okay!" Newton yelled back, fishing through his cargo pants for the sphere and casting it between them. The shield pokémon appeared from the flash of light and was greeted to a small salvo of needles from all sides. Shieldon made no move to dodge, not that he needed to, considering the attacks deflected off his body without so much as leaving a scratch.

The entire carriage rattled as the ceiling groaned; something heavy had boarded them and there was little mystery as to what it was. Electivire surged forward, barreling through his own Light Screens where the door had once been and swinging himself onto the rooftop.

"Damn it! What does he think he's doing!?" Paul hissed and shook his head. "Infi, calculate where the Drapion's head would be and have Shieldon aim a Flash Cannon attack there. Make it count! We might only get one shot!"

"On it," she replied. Electrons surged through her processor cores as she devoted one of the few cores not occupied with point-defense to calculate Drapion's location.

***

Umbreon watched the remainder of her barriers shatter when the Drapion slammed through them; the carriage's roof sank beneath his weight. Two other Drapion darted in and out of her darkening vision. The sounds of punctured metal and exploding glass marking their every disappearance from her view. The ogre scorp's hulking shadow drew her attention back to the here and now.

His beady black eyes flitted back and forth between Houndoom's body and her own. There was a glint of wicked amusement that was almost palpable as it stood there. Umbreon's eyes were slivers of crimson as she lay there and pretended to be dead. Having silently decided on his next course of action, the Drapion began to move with newfound purpose and out of Umbreon's line of sight.

Adjusting her head even slightly would've given her away. She was fortunate enough that the occasional jostle from the carriage masked her carefully concealed intakes of breath. All that was left was to do was to wait and hope Houndoom had been picked over her. The thought left a bitter taste in her mouth. But as bad as she felt for thanking the Drapion for desecrating his body — buying her a few more seconds; her desire to live outweighed that guilt. Comrade or not, Umbreon's experiences with Houndoom had been few and far in between. While his sudden passing had certainly shocked her, she was hardly overcome with grief.

Given time — if her body could combat the poison surging through her veins — there could still be a chance for her to fight another day. That shining prospect was growing dimmer and dimmer for every second she fought to keep her eyes open. Her body was no stranger to poison, glands on her skin oozed toxins as a secondary line of defense for when her luminescent rings failed. A dark thought entered her mind as she waited, straining to hear the Drapion's movements and get a feel for his next action.

Even if her body could break down the toxin, then what? She was outclassed in nearly every way. Even if she was in tip-top fighting shape, what could she do against a pokémon of that size and power? Her vaunted speed and evasion had done little to help her dodge the earlier attack; her physical strength would hardly put a dent in their bulky defenses.

"Where's Electivire? Don't they know we're still up here? Are they using us as bait? No! Gary would never do that. But that other man…I only listened to him because I felt it would keep Gary alive. Is this all part of the plan? Will he live if I die here and now?" Other morbid thoughts flitted through her mind.

A large thud dragged her back to reality; her spirit instantly plummeted as she feared that another Drapion had joined the first one on the carriage's rooftop.

"Shit! Umbreon!" a familiar voice cried out.

"Electivire!" just thinking of his name dissipated the doubts in the eeveelution's mind but being so close to their opponent kept her from responding.

The Drapion chuckled, hoisting Houndoom's limp body by the scruff of his neck between his claws.

"Let him go!" Electivire growled, assuming a battle stance and awaiting the Drapion's next move.

"What for? He's already dead." Houndoom's body was shaken in the air for emphasis, droplets of blood taking to the air as the carriage raced down the rails. As if to further prove his point he opened his mouth and unleashed a salvo of spikes into Houndoom's corpse.

"We mean you no harm. Just let us leave." The thunderbolt Pokémon spoke through gritted teeth.

"Harm's already been done, buddy!" the ogre scorp replied with far too much cheer for someone who had just turned a corpse into a pincushion. To further add to the insult, he gently shook Houndoom's body like some grotesque piñata.

"How about this…no one else needs to die today," Electivire growled. A storm of lightning raged within his crimson eyes. "Just back off with your buddies and let us leave. Enough blood has been spilled today. We're sorry for the losses your side took but you killed one of ours first. We're willing to let that go. So please, be reasonable. Surely you have a mate and your own young to look after? We can go our separate ways and live. Or we can keep fighting, and if so, no one will makes it out of this alive. I can promise you that." A sliver of lightning slithered from one of Electivire's hairs to the next as he finished his ultimatum. His gaze did not waver nor did his stance shift.

The Drapion's smile was slowly swallowed for something more stoic, his eyes flitting back and forth between the surrounding lagoon and the apparent electric type. Houndoom's body was lowered; the other two Drapion were now trailing steadily behind the carriage, but had stopped taking potshots at them.

"Well when you put it like tha—"

A column of glittering silver tore through the carriage's roof and shredded through the drapion's skull. Severed from the head, the arms and body hit the rooftop with a dull thud and rolled off into the swamp. Seconds passed before Electivire registered what happened, the other two drapion sharing in the moment of confusion.

"No. No! I told him—I promised him he could…No. No!" Electivire thundered. A tiny part of him marveled at the fact that he was actually mourning the death of his master's attacker. His arm was outstretched as what was left of the Drapion's body slid off the carriage's edge. Confusion quickly gave way to seething rage; the remaining ogre scorps were no longer in the mood to play with their prey. With practiced ease they jabbed each other with their claws before bolting forward in a blur of movement, flanking the carriage from both sides.

"Take the one on the left! I'll handle the other one!" Umbreon ordered, earning a startled stare from the thunderbeast.

"Umbreon, you—"

"I was playing dead. There's no time. Move it!" she barked, already on all fours and darting to intercept the other Drapion. The screeching of rent steel reached his ears and spurred him into action. Umbreon's target Drapion leapt into the air, dodging another torrent of silver that tore through the carriage's wall but shredded through its back stinger. The dark Eeveelution saw her chance and fired a Shadow Ball, only to watch it get torn apart between the Drapion's slashing claws.

She chanced a peek behind her. All she saw was Electivire dangling from the roof with his twin tails. Beyond that, all she saw was a maelstrom of yellow fists and purple claws. She would get no help from him; she would need to handle the Drapion on her own. Not keeping an eye on the Drapion proved almost fatal when she glanced back at her opponent and found a claw mere inches from her face. She ducked and rolled, her own momentum coupled with the wind and slick surface nearly taking her off the edge of the carriage.

The ogre scorp landed, sinking its claw into the ceiling and carving through the metal like it was paper. Its body swiveled around, ripping off a wide strip of the carriage's ceiling and casting it to the wind. Umbreon pounced, the only weapon left in her arsenal being her teeth. If she couldn't stop it; at least she could draw its attention and annoy it until someone else came to help her.

The Drapion's black and beady eye caught a glimpse of her in the midst of its turn and saw fit to surprise her further when he continued to rotate and faced her completely. One second she was staring at the Drapion and its blurry right arm, the next second the world became one of movement and color while the Drapion spun back into place, hurling her into the carriage.

Pain suddenly entered the equation, arcs of hot lightning lanced throughout her back and rendered her vision white. Blue spots began to peek through the white blanket of pain. As more of her vision cleared she realized she was staring up at the sky from inside the carriage.

"Umbreon!" Gary's voice called out to her from beyond her range of sight, her focus busied with the dark figure eclipsing her view of the heavens above. She knew she needed to move. To crawl. To roll. To do something before the Drapion landed on her, but her body was too paralyzed with pain. Darkness descended upon her until crimson light bled into her vision and the world was gone.

The ogre scorp's landing made the entire carriage rattle; Gary quickly pocketed the pokéball that now held Umbreon as Nidoking shoved Paul and him back. The carriage was now divided in two. One side held Newton, Infi, Shieldon and Eugene, while the other had Paul, Gary, and Nidoking. Electivire and the other Drapion had taken their fight back to the carriage's roof, their roars and screeches giving no clue as to how the battle was fairing.

"It's a wonder they haven't knocked the carriage off its tracks. It's not that they can't pull it o—" Paul cut his own train of thought short as his eyes widened upon at the realization. "They haven't done it, not because they haven't considered it! They don't want to! They wanted a chase, a moving target, a challenge. They could've killed us a while back! But that's not as fun as watching us cower and scramble for some illusion of safety! All my planning and knowledge, all that preparation, what was it even for!?" He stared through window, its glass long shattered and into the dismal swamp.

The bulky two-fingered arms emerged from the backpack as Infi calculated her chances of victory — with Newton unharmed — if she engaged the Drapion with the arms. Her calculations were complete — and they foretold an undesirable outcome. 

The heavy manipulators were far too slow for such a purpose — she could no longer parry the Drapion's projectile attacks. One lucky shot at Newton and he was dead. Shieldon's attacks would take too long to unleash and with no way to tell how many Acupressures had been done on its body, anything was possible.

"Which wunna ya bastards blasted my buddy up there!?" the Drapion snarled, swiveling gradually in place. "Was it you?" He turned to face the purple drill pokémon, thinking him the most likely out of the group.

"Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. What're you going to do about it!? You're outnumbered!" Nidoking rumbled back, shifting slightly to block Gary from his view. The action wasn't lost on the Drapion and a smile formed on his face, one that Nidoking immediately felt uncomfortable with.

The ogre scorp lunged forwards, claws raised into the air as he sped towards Nidoking. The drill pokémon braced himself, confident that the claws would not pierce his hide or affect him with their shared element. It wasn't until the Drapion was nearly on top of him that Nidoking realized he was never the intended target. Those behind him were.

Nidoking moved quickly, shifting his weight as he spun in place and threw a vicious roundhouse kick into his opponent's midsection just as a single needle threatened to leave his purple maw. Warm air and spittle washed over Nidoking's face, the Drapion's eyes now wide as the air was knocked out of his lungs and a sickening crack filled the room. Nidoking worked quickly, having no guarantee that the Drapion would stay down after that blow.

The drill pokémon kept turning, feeling the floor beneath him beginning to give out while he reeled his leg back, letting the momentum fuel a second blow from his tail.

With an even more massive impact, Nidoking's tail slammed into the ogre scorp's side. Newton watched the Drapion fly into the wall. He found himself surprised to see the Drapion still in one piece upon impact. A surprising feat, considering that Nidoking could snap a telephone pole in two with almost no effort.

Despite the Drapion's continued integrity, the same could not be said for the wall that bowed outwards. With an earsplitting screech, the wall ripped free, taking a hefty section of the carriage with it. The ravaged train compartment rocked chaotically, threatening to derail or shake out the rest of its passengers. Electivire swung down from the top, scanning the war-torn interior, his golden fur splattered with splotches of green fluids, marks of his apparent victory.

"You took care of yours too?" Nidoking asked.

"Thanks to you," Electivire replied.

"Wasn't intentional."

"Regardless, thanks to whatever you di—" The thunderbeast's eyes suddenly widened, his gaze carrying over Nidoking's shoulder. The sounds of ragged breathing reached Nidoking's ears. Once he turned, the sight leeched the heat from his blood and the air in his lungs.

Gary gripped his trembling left arm at just above the elbow. Protruding from his hand was a glowing purple needle.

His skin began to blacken around the wound as the venom rapidly worked through his flesh. Screams fled from his lips as he frantically jumped from face to face around the room. Newton's face offered nothing but horror. Paul's shocked expression held no remedies for him. In the yawning silence Nidoking felt himself get shoved aside, his view of Gary now eclipsed by the thunderbeast's bulk.

"Help me!" Gary cried, the spreading death now consuming his wrist.

Large and trembling hands floated over the infected flesh. As powerful as they were, they could not undo the damage that was being done. What did it matter if Electivire could burn down an entire landscape with a simple motion? Holding the reins of nature's greatest forces was utterly useless if it couldn't save the fleeting life in front of him.

He chanced a glance at Nidoking, still frozen to the spot where from where he had been shoved. If Electivire was so afraid of doing more harm to Gary with just his sheer strength, how tortured must Nidoking have been from where he was? Poison was his element. And now it was killing the one they served. Anything he did could potentially worsen the situation, leaving him to stand paralyzed and stare speechlessly.

Electivire stared back at Gary's arm as he frantically searched for some solution to spreading necrosis. In those few seconds, the corruption had now taken half of his forearm. All of his life's obstacles had been solved through either one or a combination of his speed, strength and lightning. Speed appeared to be his only ally. 

Thoughts rampaged through his brain as he tried to come up with something.

"I can't lose him! Not now, not after everything we've been through!

"What can I do!?

"Why is this happening? Why him?

"He wasn't supposed to—what if I shock only his arm?

Burn out the poison from the heat. Could I stop it from spreading to the rest of him?

"No, that's stupid! I could kill him.

"He's gonna die anyway if I do nothing.

"I've never—but I've gotta—I could kill him faste—No, he'd lose the arm from the dama—"

It was then Electivire's frantic thoughts came to fruition. "Lose the arm. Lose the arm. The arm… I…"

Electivire backed away and watched Gary's gaze lift to meet his own. All he saw were hopeless and pitiful windows to the trainer's soul. Did he think the step back meant he was being abandoned; that nothing more could be done for him? Did he think this was the end for him? Did he rage at his fate or was it muted by the deafening focus of his arm that was now his entire world.

"I could save him.

"Am I saving him?

"His life, if he lives.

"If he lives. Will he have a life after this? What kind of life would that be? Am I only delaying the inevitable?

"Will I have to do this again? Will he hate me for this? Would it be kinder to let it end here?

"I…I don't know. I can't know. This is the best I can do. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Gary."

The thunderbeast's eyes shimmered, his right hand wrapping around the brunette's pale bicep. He jerked his body around, aiming the dying hand towards the end of the carriage. Gary's eyes widened as he realized what was going to occur. It was too much for him to take; he went limp. At that exact moment, a Light Screen appeared, with Gary and Electivire on one side and the rest of Gary's arm on the other.

The rotting arm had yet to even hit the ground when Infi's spindly hands flew to Eugene and ripped the shirt from him. Her heavy arms slammed into the ground, leaving two deep dents on the steel floor as she launched Newton forward. A dull thud from Gary's arm briefly intruded on the droning clatter from the tracks that permeated the room.

Newton landed and slid until he was beside the thunderbeast who held up Gary's unconscious body with his other hand. The arm that held Infi's eye swung into view of the open wound, the purple glow of the light screen in her way dimmed until it died completely. A quick scan revealed that no poison had made it to the other side of the arm; Electivire's quick thinking and precision had probably saved the boy's life. Gary's earlier vice grip on his arm probably helped lessen the damage by slowing the venom's progress.

Infi moved quickly, wrapping a torn strip of Eugene's shirt as a makeshift tourniquet around what was left of the youth's limb. Once her hands were free they swiped at Electivire's fur, freeing golden clumps of hair that collected onto what was left of Eugene's shirt and eventually pressed against the bleeding stump.

In theory the tourniquet and hair would slow the blood flow until they could be sewed shut. The hard part was keeping the wound from getting infected until Gary could get some kind of attention. Seeing as they were in the middle of swamp, Infi did not like the odds. That percentage dropped to into the negative range when a chorus of roars ripped apart whatever sense of stability they had frantically scrounged together.

"It can't…we…for fuck's sake!" Newton's cry degenerated into a roar. Infi had never known her maker to curse but even she couldn't help but do the same. The Drapion wasted no time in slamming against the train and the carriage simultaneously, lifting it off the track. Nidoking practically threw himself into Paul and wrapped him in his embrace as the carriage began to teeter at dangerous angles.

Infi returned Shieldon with Newton's pokéball as she began to calculate how they would land and the best way to mitigate the damage sustained from the impact. Electivire swept Gary into his arms, bracing himself for the roll that would come. With no one left to help him, Eugene wrapped himself around the only standing pole that had survived the onslaught.

The Alpha Drapion watched with malicious glee as their target rolled off its tracks and tumbled into the swamp. Part of him wanted to give the order to bombard the derelict carriage with their Poison Stings and Pin Missiles to finish them off; they had lost far too many on what was supposed to be a simple hunt. But the other half of him wanted something to crawl out of the metal husk; something they could slowly tear to pieces and extract every ounce of pain and suffering.

The latter half was winning and was quickly rewarded with the sight of a hulking purple figure making its way out of the wreckage. As one, the Drapion calmly and casually drew closer to their beaten prey. They could take their time now, gutting their entertainment like they had with the carriage.

"Not one…of you fuckers…is gonna get… past me!" Nidoking growled. The Drapion swarm chuckled amongst themselves.

"Well lookie here boys, we gots ourselves a hero. Let's show him what we do to heroes!" The alpha cackled darkly.

A wave of fists simultaneously slammed into the alpha's side, caving in his exoskeleton with spurts of green oozing from the cracks. The other Drapion paused to stare at the black and blue blurs that had crushed half of their leader's body; the confusion rendering the other blurs converging on them practically invisible. Nidoking could only watch in morbid fascination as the Drapion were decimated before his eyes within a matter of seconds, hoping that whatever was slaughtering their pursuers would not turn a hungry eye towards them.


	8. Swamped

"How's this, Infi?" Newton whispered, sliding his hands across the weathered map and holding it at the corners.

There was no response save for the faint whirring as Infi's eye flitted over the map for a few seconds. The harsh white light from the eyepiece was the only light in the swamp — save the thousands of glittering stars above them.

"You can let go now, Newton," she replied quietly, satisfied with the digital version she'd made and could manipulate any way she wanted. Newton's hands retreated at her command; his absence summoning the countless wrinkles and creases atop the map's surface gained by years of folding and refolding. 

"Well Infi?" Newton asked.

"It's not the most ideal route, but our chances of most of us surviving are higher than that of other plans we came up with," Infi replied.

Paul was the first to speak out; his cool, icy stare jumped from person to person before he closed his eyes and sighed. "None of you are saying it, so I might as well throw it out there. We're not coming out of this without casualties. Its plan is—"

"—her," Newton replied, the brusqueness betraying his indignation at hearing Infi being referred to as a mere object.

Paul continued as if he didn't hear the scientist. "Infi's plan is efficient. I won't deny that. But you'd be stupid to think everyone will come out of this okay."

"It's the fastest way to get your friend proper medical attention," Crasher Wake added as he made his way over to them from the tree he'd been leaning on. Newton had to look up to meet the wrestler's gaze. Pale lines marked his face — remnants of his previous days as a masked luchador. "We could make our way to another town, but it'll take longer on foot. I'm not even sure how we would move the wounded or if they'll even make the trip. There's also no telling what's even out there. At least if we take this route we know what we're facing and we can prepare for it. It's a straighter shot to a town than anything else we have."

"We don't exactly have enough food or clean water here to maintain this many people for much longer," Paul added.

Newton sighed and wiped his drenched brow, knowing the action was fruitless with all the humidity around them. "All right. Infi, how much longer could we safely stay here? General estimate."

A pregnant pause hung in the air as Infi crunched the numbers, taking into account numerous variables ranging from age to physical condition to survival time of the wounded. After several seconds, the AI spoke. "At most, three days. For optimal morale and survival, no more than a single day."

"Okay. First thing in the morning we can send out Wake to scavenge what we can from the carriage and find a way to fit them onto the other train and carriage you have here."

"Gary's Blastoise could cut the metal scrap we have into strips. From there we could weld some extra layers onto the carriage with Gary's Electivire," Wake added. 

Said scientist then turned to the only other trainer in their group. "Paul, your party will stay as night watch for tonight and tomorrow." The Veilstone youth merely nodded back in response.

Newton nodded back and looked around the swamp. "Infi, how long can safely we keep Gary under?"

"As long as the local Croagunk continue with their natural diet, we can continue to administer epibatidine into his system. If we keep the dosage at 4.5micrograms per kilogram, he should remain stable for some time. The dosage can be reduced to extend the amount we're administering, but we also risk him regaining consciousness. The—"

"Infi," Newton said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "How many days?"

"At best, one day." 

Newton sighed. "All right then. Do what you need to do, Wake. I'm gonna go check on Gary."

They wordlessly dispersed from one another and went handle their own tasks. Newton made his way through the camp, wanting nothing more than to collapse onto the ground and pass out, but things needed to be done, if they were to minimize the losses that would occur tomorrow plans needed to be made and revised endlessly. Despite their current situation, a part of Newton couldn't help but consider himself lucky. If not for the intervention of the Croagunk from the sanctuary, they may not have made it out of the carriage alive.

The people of Pastoria had interacted with the wild Croagunk for generations, making them their town's personal mascot. Festivals were held annually in their honor, and nearly every household had one; not as trained Pokémon but as a pet and companion. It came as no surprise then that Croagunk of the Great Marsh, despite being wild, came readily to the aid of the Pastorians in their moment of need.

Two rows of bodies — one of them considerably smaller than the other — came into view as Newton made his way deeper into the encampment. He headed for the smaller row; the "infirmary". One particular body was surrounded by several hulking figures. Blastoise, Nidoking, and Electivire's glances shifted to him momentarily before flitting back to their trainer and comrade. Umbreon had been laid beside Gary's body, her breathing somewhat labored as she slept. Gary lay on his back; the new bandages around his severed arm consisting of repurposed garments from those around him who would no longer need them.

"How's he doing?" Newton asked.

Blastoise released a breath through his nostrils while Electivire only closed his eyes. Nidoking's gaze was still trained on the ground.

"You mind if I have a moment?"

Electivire was the first to move away, albeit reluctantly. Blastoise stood rooted to his spot for some time. The thunderbeast's hand reached towards the starter, only to have it swatted away. Rapid interchanges of their names passed between them; the content of their dialogue was a mystery to Newton, but the gist of it was clear. Blastoise finally started to leave, but not before throwing Nidoking a scathing glare and trudging behind Electivire. The poison drill Pokémon eventually followed suit, keeping his distance from the water starter.

"Infi, status report on Umbreon," the scientist ordered.

A gentle whirring was heard as the HUD eyepiece swung out from behind a port on Newton's backpack. A few moments passed as the eyepiece scanned over the sleeping Pokémon. "Heart rate is regular. I'm getting readings of delta waves from her brain, commonly associated with the move known as Rest. It may be some time for her to recover fully. Estimated time until combat readiness…two days."

"Time we don't have." Newton sighed and moved over to Gary. He averted his eyes and swallowed the bile that began to rise in his throat. The churning in his stomach grew stronger as he began peeling the rags off the youth's elbow. "Infi…could you..." He swallowed again and turned his back, lest he vomit on Gary.

"Of course, Newton," Infi replied, recognizing Newton's squeamishness from his tone. The arm that held her eyepiece extended over her maker's shoulder and peered into the wound. "Cauterizing the wound was a success as there are no signs of bleeding. It is too early to offer a prognosis on the healing. However, the sooner we can get to a proper medical facility, the better the chance we can keep any infection from spreading. Or better yet, prevent infection from taking hold entirely."

"Good," Newton let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. A surge of pity made his eyes shimmer until he looked away. "It should've been me," he muttered.

"Newton, don't say that. Our chances of survival would be greatly diminished if you were incapacitated."

"I could've taken a lower dosage! I could've handled the pain while I stayed conscious! Damn it, Infi! He's too young to have to deal with this! When he wakes up…how do you even break the news to him!?" Newton suddenly realized that he was shouting. Taking a breath to calm himself, he continued in a more quiet tone. "If it were me, I know I could've handled it as long as I had you; or at least until I could make a replacement. If I could get my hands on the right materials I could make a hand for him, but it's not the same. Telling him that isn't going to—"

"—we need to focus on making it out of here before we can even start planning on helping him." Infi's cool electronic voice cut the scientist off mid-rant.

"You're right. I know you're right, but it doesn't make this easier."

***

A gray curtain of heavy rain hung from navy blue thunderheads atop the horizon. The occasional breeze went through the camp, seemingly in time with every ominous flash in the distance. Sparks sprayed into the air as Electivire's tail traced along the border of the metal slab being held against one of the carriage's windows. He stopped momentarily, letting the red line of molten metal cool down in the chilly air. 

"That's enough for this side, do the next one." Newton backed away from the work area. As much as he wished he could help, he was nowhere strong enough to handle the hulking steel plates that had been cut from the wrecked carriages. His AI was equally impotent. Thanks to the looming storm clouds (and distressing lack of electrical outlets) she was running solely on her now rapidly diminishing battery power. The heavy manipulator arms could probably match Electivire in sheer strength but the power came at a price; the actuators for the arms consumed a substantial amount of power.

Electivire shifted to the side, keeping his palm pressed against the slab while the others maneuvered around him. They had already reinforced the engine, along with two of the three carriages the other survivors were meant to ride in. Once he was done armoring the carriages and engines, he would line the interior of each carriage wall with several layers of Light Screens to serve as an additional layer of armor.

The distant boom of thunder briefly drew his gaze away from the task at hand. He watched the impending storm angrily churn towards them like a wall of liquid smoke. A sudden flash unveiled its hidden depths, making him feel like he was glimpsing briefly into a dark and alien dimension.

Ever since he'd been an Elekid storms had always grabbed at his attention. He wasn't quite sure what it was about storms that enraptured him so, but he figured it was something like a kinship that they shared. Both of them were forces of nature. Heralds to its fury embodied in a white-hot bolt from the heavens.

"Move onto the next piece," Infi's voice broke through his thoughts and reminded him of their situation.

It was a race against the rain; the Pastorians and their wounded would need to be on the carriages before it really started to pour. The thunderbeast's eyes trailed over to Wake's Floatzel, rhythmically moving about the clearing while Blastoise and Quagsire watched.

After a few minutes the water weasel eventually lifted a paw in surrender, signaling one of the others to take over for him. Blastoise and Quagsire stared at each other before the water fish Pokémon leapt into the circle of flattened grass and dirt and continued the dance they'd been doing for hours. The fruits of their efforts now grumbled and roiled in the distance. From the look of it, it would make for an impressive storm, if not a monsoon.

"Don't dance too hard, guys. I still have the other side of this carriage," Electivire thought to himself. Of course, he dared not voice his complaints, lest he seem ungrateful.

Blastoise passed Floatzel a leppa berry that the Croagunk had gathered for them. Leppa berries were great for removing the sensation of fatigue, but were dangerous if overeaten The berries didn't so much as alleviate exhaustion as much as they hid it from the brain. After repeated use and continuous strain, one risked having their body give out on them. Pain and fatigue were built-in indicators of the need to rest. Those sensations were to be ignored at one's peril.

Electivire didn't like using them, preferring to know his limits and accept them until he could move past them via strenuous training. That said; he did appreciate the Croagunk's efforts to help keep them fed and protected. They had claimed it was the least they could do for them considering they were not joining them for their journey. The marshes were their home and they would hold the sanctuary in the event that Gary and his group ever needed to return.

He would've said the thought was comforting if they hadn't lost so much on just trying to make it to the sanctuary in the first place. Skarmory and Houndoom hadn't been close enough to him to be considered close friends, but dwelling on their passing was no less painful. He could only hope that Blastoise and the others would be safe on their mission.

Wake's plan had been simple: as the carriage made its way through the marsh and forests between them and Pastoria, Blastoise and most of Wake's party would swim on a separate route than ran parallel to theirs. Their group would split up before they reached a thin stretch of forest known to hold a swarm of Drapion.

The diversionary group would be slightly ahead of them, drawing any focus towards them instead of the carriages until they could regroup and pick off any stragglers coming after them. The heavy rain would boost their water attacks and movements while cutting down the Drapion's visibility and inhibiting their ability to attack from the air.

Nidoking, Shieldon and Quagsire would be assisting him in defending the carriage from those that didn't attack the diversionary team. The hope was that Blastoise's shell and Gyarados's scales would be enough to protect them against the Drapions' attacks. Floatzel, on the other hand, would rely on the rain. Not only would the monsoon boost Floatzel's speed, allowing him to dodge their attacks and launch his own; it would also slow down the Drapions' attacks as well as reduce their accuracy.

Ideally, the carriage defense team wouldn't need to fire any shots in retaliation; doing so would draw unnecessary attention to them and undermine the efforts of the diversion team. It was Wake's hope that the downpour would mask the sound of the train's movements, allowing them to go unnoticed. Electivire didn't need Infi's calculations or Paul's cynicism to know that things would probably not go as planned. The truism of "Expect the worst, but hope for the best" was never more accurate.

***

The darkness abruptly receded as a flash beyond the carriage's walls wormed its way through the cracks in their defenses. The illumination was weak and brief but it was enough for Paul to see the others that rode with him and inspect the hull's integrity.

"No holes," Paul muttered as his gaze swept across the walls. There were no pinpricks of light nor crumpled or caved-in sections of wall that he could see. Yet.

A steady stream of rain drummed along the wall. The wind outside was unforgiving, screaming in through the tiny gaps in the steel as it sent waves of water crashing over them. If he closed his eyes and concentrated he could find a pattern within the chaos, sense an undulating rhythm in the gale driven rain as the downpour broke against the metal.

Focus on the task at hand.

His own mental whip cracked over his head and forced his eyes open. He scowled into the vague darkness, patiently awaiting the next flash of light to update him. The walls of the carriage shuddered with the crash of thunder, evoking a soft whimper from someone within the carriage.

Pathetic.

Paul knew better than to voice his thoughts aloud; doing so would only aggravate the other passengers in the carriage. Whether through his aura or icy stare, the others had kept their distance, leaving him enough room to stretch his legs. A part of him wondered how Wake and Newton were faring in the other carriages; the thought eventually gathered some resentment along the way.

You're being stupid. What could you possibly do if you were there?

Wake had the "VIP carriage". Its moniker was earned only due to its passengers: the prominent figures of Pastoria; its accommodations were just as bare as the others. Paul's carriage held the rest of the Pastorians. In the final carriage — the "hospital carriage" — Newton and Infi got the unenviable task of being pressed into service as ad hoc medics, stabilizing and treating the wounded as best as their limited supplies could let them.

Or putting them out of their misery.

Another flash filled the room, unveiling the wide-eyed and shivering flock of annoyances he'd been saddled with. He caught the expression of one of the women clinging desperately to what Paul could only assume was her lover. He watched her pupils dilate, her lips part for another rapid intake of breath, her fingers birthing new creases as they dug into the fabric of her lover's shirt.

Could I kill them if they were dying? I could make Weavile do it…but that means I couldn't do it myself.

The light receded, letting the darkness fill the room like a wave of tar, sparing him the sight of the others.

At least the wounded have a reason to complain and be afraid.

Gary's face flashed into his mind as he finished the thought. A scene began to materialize in his mind, his body standing over Gary's fallen form. A glowing needle was embedded in Gary's shoulder; the necrotic poison visibly working its way across his skin. Paul's foot was on Gary's throat; shimmering eyes stared up at him, silently pleading for life as they awaited his next move.

"Can you?" the pragmatic part of his mind asked.

"…"

Why are you hesitating?

I'm not.

Is it because you know him?

No it's…

That didn't stop you with Magmar.

I know.

You knew him longer, trained him.

I couldn't have kept him. He might've killed us eventually. I couldn't risk him being free, the damage he'd cause…he needed to die, he was a liability.

These people, they're all liabilities.

The scene in his mind changed. The woman's lover now replaced Gary. His eyes still shimmered, filled with the same fear and disbelief as Paul pressed his foot deeper into the man's throat. This time, Paul bore down with no hesitation. The man coughed and choked as his trachea was crushed. He flailed about as he desperately tried to draw breath. The Sinnohvian trainer's face remained neutral as he drove his foot down with all his might. The dying man thrashed about in one final attempt to draw breath. And then he was still. The young man took his foot off the dead man. Despite committing murder, the Sinnohvian trainer remained calm, as if taking a life was no more stressful than hanging up on an unpleasant caller.

You know you could kill any of these people; every single person on this carriage. As many as it takes. All that matters is that you live in the end.

Gary's pokémon will do anything I want them to do, as long as it keeps him alive.

These people don't have that luxury. They have no Pokémon. No skills. Nothing to offer but their lives. They're perfectly expendable.

All that matters is finding him again.

The room brightened and dimmed from a distant bolt of lightning. Paul patiently waited for the thunder, hoping the deafening blast would mask his growl in the darkness.

"Brandon"

***

They had been riding for an hour, enduring the driving rain and winds that threatened to throw them off their respective carriages. Nidoking had taken the rear while Electivire rode atop the middle carriage holding Newton and the wounded. Shieldon had been tasked with guarding Wake's carriage, leaving Quagsire to defend the engine.

The initial tension in the air had been as thick as the unforgiving deluge when they first set out, but as the minutes came and went, the group's determination for the upcoming opposition dwindled and died. Trees they did see were sparse; the forest that supposedly had a Drapion population was nowhere to be seen. The only one who didn't seem bothered by the rain was Quagsire, who in fact seemed to revel in it.

Unending and merciless rain had placed Nidoking and Electivire in foul and silent moods, even with the Light Screens that had been placed to shield them from the worst of it. Shieldon hardly felt the rain through his thick hide, having contented himself with watching trees whiz by them.

"Why aren't you with them?" Shieldon asked, straining his voice to be heard over the howling winds and torrential downpour. Quagsire turned to regard him for a few seconds as if mulling over his question before silently turning back to stare at Floatzel and the others who were still within sight.

Blastoise had retreated into his shell, leaving only his cannons to propel him across the swamp. Gyarados slithered through the inundated marshes with Floatzel riding atop his head.

"I'm too slow," he replied simply.

"I know what that's like." The somber tone of Shieldon's voice matched the black skies above them.

"Worry not." A slimy hand landed on the crest of Shieldon's head. "There's a place for Pokémon like us."

"Like us?" the Shield Pokémon echoed.

"Why of course!" The water fish smiled, motioning towards the others. "While our comrades may be faster than us, they lack the…resilience that we possess."

"Re…zilly…ence?" Shieldon tilted his head as the unfamiliar word washed over him like the fat raindrops that bombarded them.

"What I mean to say is that we are sturdy. While others may outmaneuver me in a battle, if I can land at least one good hit in, then the victory will be mine."

"Aren't you scared of what's going to happen? I mean, of fighting other Pokémon?"

"I have fought many Pokémon over the years, though I fear this time may be very different. Am I scared? Yes. There's no shame in being scared. It's what you do with it that matters."

"How is this kind of fighting different from before?" Shieldon asked.

Quagsire sighed. Not out of irritation but out of bad memories. "For starters, when my comrades and I fought other Pokémon, there were never any deaths or fatal injuries. Someone or something has changed things for everyone. Although I'm not entirely sure why. We are stronger than we were many moons ago, I'm sure you felt it as well."

"I did and I…" Shieldon trailed off. A few seconds were all it took for him to recall the memory. "I heard a voice in my head when it happened. I couldn't tell what it was saying because of the pain."

Quagsire nodded as well. "I heard something as well, but I too was unable to make out the words."

The number of trees around them began to increase until it was thick enough to hide Floatzel's group mostly from view.

"Are you recently caught?" Quagsire's question made Shieldon shake his head.

"I've been with Newton for a long time. He taught me some moves so we could get through some places, but I've never really fought another Pokémon. I didn't know why you and the others did," Shieldon replied.

"Wake, my trainer, has a very important role in this world. He's a gym leader, which means that he asks us to fight another trainer's Pokémon as to gauge their strengths and weaknesses to help them grow."

"Do you have to fight them?"

"Yes…and no. We fight them so that we can help them."

"Help them?" Again, Shieldon tilted his head.

"When we come into this world a…" Quagsire stopped his train of thought in an attempt to find an explanation that was simple enough for the young Pokémon but accurate. "A stress is placed upon us. The stress to get food, make it through the world and be safe from harm. To overcome this stress there is a strength that is required of us and if we cannot overcome it, then our lives will be difficult until we do. Are you following so far?"

"I… I think so," Shieldon replied, the waver in his voice was at odds with the determined gaze in his eyes.

Quagsire nodded and continued. "For some, the stress this world puts them under forces them to push themselves, and in doing so they surpass their limits. To move faster or farther than one could before; or be stronger and stay strong longer. Sometimes when pushed enough we can even change our forms."

"Change our forms?"

"Do you remember our comrade Gyarados?"

"The big, blue and long one?"

"The very same. He's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Would you believe that he was once about your size? He was small, red, and utterly weak. Either of us could have beaten him with ease. Do try to avoid reminding him of that time in his life; it may not go well for you if you do."

Quagsire watched Shieldon work over and struggle with the idea, occasionally throwing glances at the Atrocious Pokémon now disappearing behind the thickening forest.

"He got stronger because he fought a lot?" Shieldon asked.

"Yes…and no."

The young Pokémon's thoughts came to a screeching halt. "Wait, I don't get it. How can it be yes and no?"

"There are Pokémon that have never entered their next stage despite the years of battle they've endured. Fighting is not the only thing in achieving your next form; it is merely the stage through which you find your limits and the desire to surpass them. I had a form that came before what you see now. I was smaller, thinner, and I did not have these." Quagsire lifted his arms and moved around for emphasis.

"You changed because you wanted arms?"

"I wanted to be stronger," he corrected. "One day I saw one of my kind evolve into this form and I knew that the same could happen for me one day if I tried hard enough. I was inspired to take this form, as I imagine those who came before me were when they saw what they could become. That is why I battle Pokémon for Wake. Out in the wild I would've simply lived my life as a Wooper, worried about my next meal, where I could sleep safely, or any potential predators that were in the area. It was through Wake that I found a purpose in my life. Our battles with other Pokémon help simulate the stress we would need to get stronger and at a faster rate. It helps us recognize what's really important to us and what we really want."

"Do you think I could change one day too? Be as big and strong as my mom and dad?"

Quagsire smiled. "I'm sure you could."

"What about you? You think you'll ever change again?" Shieldon asked.

The question took Quagsire off guard, his smile exchanged for a thoughtful look to the clouds above. "I've never really given that much thought. I've always felt that this was my limit, but I imagine that is what the Wooper all believed before someone assumed this form. Wake has never told me of a form beyond this one; I guess anything is possible."

There was no flash to herald the distant boom that they heard ahead of them.

The Water Fish Pokémon's countenance changed into one of utter seriousness. "It seems our friends have made contact. Don't attack them unless absolutely necessary; we don't want to draw their attention from the others."

***

Floatzel twirled through the rain, luminous crescents orbiting his body before he launched a salvo of Razor Wind sickles into the woods. Gyarados ducked under a volley of golden bullets, retaliating with a Dragon Rage. Despite the driving rain, the blast of fire was so hot the woods instantly burst into flame. Clouds of steam rose into the black sky as the storm tried to extinguish the roaring inferno. Blastoise hardly felt the sea weasel's sudden landing on his shell, nor did he notice the seeds that bounced harmlessly off his body.

"Is it the Drapion?" Blastoise's voice emerged from his shell.

"No, it's something else. I think it might be Carnivine," Floatzel replied.

"Carni-what?"

"Grass types. Big head. Big teeth." Floatzel's flotation sac inflated to such a degree that it resembled a yellow shield. The glowing projectiles impacted against impromptu barrier and deflected harmlessly into the stormy sky.

"How did we piss them off?"

"Not sure we did. They usually attack to hunt and eat bug Pokémon."

"Then how did we suddenly become bug types?" Blastoise grumbled.

"We're moving really fast like one of the bug types that live in this swamp. They may just be attacking on reflex. Their vision's already bad and this rain probably isn't helping them see," Floatzel replied.

"Can we tell them to stop?"

"We could slow down and try and talk to 'em, but there's no guarantee they'll hear or listen to us. 'Sides, we need to stay in front of the train and draw their atten—"

A wall of ice several stories high rose beyond the forest where the train was set to be.

"—tion…"

"Is something happening?" The water starter's voice echoed out from his shell.

"Looks like the Carnivine think the train is a bug type," Floatzel replied.

"Just great," Blastoise deadpanned.

"Less sass, more blast. Let's see if we can bring their attention back onto us." The lethal blades of Razor Wind and Sonic Boom materialized around the sea weasel as he prepared for battle.

***

"The sound from the impact indicates a more spherical projectile rather than a sharpened one. Our location in the Great Marsh narrows the Pokémon that can fire this type of projectile in large quantities to Carnivine. Possibly using Bullet Seed."

Infi's cool electronic voice sliced through the palpable tension and fear that hung in the air. "Can it affect the carriages?" Newton asked, struggling to keep his heartbeat in check and his voice calm, lest the fear become contagious.

"At this time. No." Newton let out the breath he had been holding. "However, as their shots appear to be mostly random, I cannot guarantee the carriage's integrity under more accurate and sustained fire. I strongly recommend that we do not linger."

A bolt of fear struck him like the Bullet Seeds that slammed against the carriage. Were the Carnivine toying with them?" I thought we only had to deal with the Drapion. Why are Carnivine firing at us?"

"There is insufficient information to give you a concrete answer. I can postulate the reasons but their accuracy cannot be ensured."

And as soon as it started, the bullet bombardment abruptly died. Newton shuddered; the oppressive silence choked the air like a veil. "Infi?" Newton asked. The quaver in his voice was the first crack in his carefully constructed calm façade.

"Sensors are picking up a sudden and dramatic temperature drop outside. Quagsire and Shieldon may have used their Ice Beams to form an ice wall between us and the Carnivine's attacks." The sensors that were once used by the carriage to manage its climate control systems had now become Infi's eyes and ears to the outside world.

Rings of gold and crimson eyes suddenly illuminated a corner of the carriage; the sight made Newton's heart nearly stop.

"It's all right Newton. It's only Gary's Umbreon."

"Didn't you say she'd be out for at least two more days?" Newton said between ragged breaths he took to try and calm his racing heart.

"She should be," Infi replied testily. The overt anger masked an uncomfortable truth — the AI was not one to easily take criticism and scrutiny. Her previous owner, Zero, had always trusted her words. Up until a few days ago, her track record had been flawless. How many more inaccurate statements would everyone take before they joined Paul in questioning her accuracy?

"Don't worry about it so much, Infi," Newton reassured her, almost as if she had projected her contemplations on a screen for him. "The limiter removal all the Pokémon went through would throw off anyone's calculations. Even the greatest minds can't calculate the human spirit. Or in this case, the Pokémon spirit."

Umbreon stared at them for a moment; her rigid scarlet stare causing Newton to recoil, just as eons of natural selection designed it to do. She gradually shifted her focus, scanning the dark carriage with her night vision until she found her target. Infi noticed the subtle elevation of the moonlight's Pokémon fur. Her eyes were widened to take in what little light that filtered in through the carriage's crude armor plate as she maneuvered past the wounded that the covered the carriage floor.

There was only one person she was interested in; one person that mattered more to her than anyone else in the world and now he was lying on the floor before her without one of his arms. Newton suddenly found himself subjected to her crimson glare, demanding an explanation and blaming him for her master's wound.

"He got hurt after you passed out. He's fine for now, but we need to make it out of this swamp to make sure he can heal," Newton explained. Whether his response sated her or not, her glare continued for a few more seconds before shifting back to her trainer. She nuzzled him gently and sat at his side until a noise made her ears twitch. The sound was akin to thousands of needles dropping on glass.

Newton's face fell as he heard the distinctive, almost musical ping, of Pin Needles and Poison Stings on metal. "Infi…is that…"

"Yes, that would be the Drapion," Infi replied without hesitation.

***

Slivers of purple filled the shimmering silver air between Blastoise's group and the woods. The trees that hadn't burst into flame exploded into clouds of splinters with each massive blast of water. Blades of wind carved through the swamp and into the forest, forcing the Drapion to either take the attack head-on and be bisected. Those who opted to take cover behind the trees risked the tree catching fire and igniting them or a torrent of water punching through the tree and them. From the opposite side, a torrent of iron shrapnel raked the forest, leaving the Drapion disoriented and divided on what side to focus on.

The force and precision that had made the attacks so deadly before now simply deflected off of Gyarados' scaly hide. Quality had been traded for quantity and its effects were evidently showing. Floatzel spun over another salvo of spikes, launching his own attacks before breaching the surface of the water.

"I'm getting slower," Floatzel thought as he risked a glance towards the sky. The torrential rainfall had begun to die down. "We're leaving the range of our Rain Dance; not surprising seeing as we've been traveling for over an hour."

In time the Pin Missiles became less frequent; the purple needles of Poison Sting had disappeared from the air entirely. Black skies that flashed and roared above them now receded into the horizon. The howling gale petered out into occasional gusts while the once monsoonal rains became a light drizzle. Blastoise flipped onto his back, his head emerging from his shell upon Floatzel's landing on his underbelly.

"Your eyesight's probably better than mine right now. Are they coming after us?" Blastoise asked.

Floatzel squinted into the distance but found no purple figures trailing behind Gyarados. "It doesn't look like it. Weird though, I figured they'd chase after us like they did for you guys."

"They found us on their turf and chased after us the first time. This time we hit them where they lived when they least expected it. The Croagunk at the haven probably killed their attack force, whatever's left behind must be the families and the last of their fighters. They probably don't have the numbers to go after us for now," Blastoise said.

Part of Floatzel couldn't help but feel that things had gone a little too smoothly; the other half wanted to just enjoy the fact that things had gone their way for once. There had been no warning and no reason beyond the expectation that the Drapion would do the same had they been given the chance.

"Now isn't the time to be brooding over that. We couldn't afford to let them have that chance. We've lost so many already."

The forest began to thin out; segments of the ad hoc armored train peeked through the gaps between trees.

"Then why do I feel bad about what we did? It was us or them."

"Anything else that might mistake us for bug types?" Blastoise asked, breaking Floatzel out of his thought.

"Not that I know of."

"You know quite a bit about this place."

Floatzel nodded in assent. "Wake and I would come here to train sometimes; I've lived with him in Pastoria for years."

"Well at least it looks like it'll be smooth sailing from here on out. Why are Drapion so pissy about their territory anyways?"

"They have to be, I guess. The bug-types they eat are just as territorial as they are and feed on just about anything they can get their jaws on. You could even say the Drapion are the way there because they need to be, at least to handle the ya—"

Several seconds had passed before Blastoise noticed something had happened to Floatzel. The sudden silence was the first thing to catch his attention; the second was that half of the sea weasel's head was missing. Floatzel didn't even seem to notice that anything was wrong, even when his arm disappeared and left a bloody stump in its place. Blastoise watched as the remains of Floatzel tumbled into the mire. But when realization finally reached the sea weasel, a chunk of his waist had been bitten out. An instant later there was no face or throat left to scream.


	9. Conductor

August 19

***

The world outside Blastoise's shell was of aquatic mayhem. The second he registered that Floatzel was dead, his limbs retracted into the shell. A deafening buzz rushed past where his head once was, letting him know he had acted just in time.

His body was suddenly blasted across the swamp and while the blows didn't damage his shell or hurt him, he didn't want to press his luck. Thin blurs flitted past his narrowed vision as they ducked and dodged, blasts and ribbons of water cut through empty air no matter how much he fired from his cannons.

To make matters worse, his new assailants were learning how to deal with him. Shots were now being aimed at the openings in his shell, forcing him to spin rapidly to throw off their aim and deflect their shots. Trying to retaliate in this state was nearly impossible and the ache in his muscles and bones told him that wouldn't be able to keep moving like this for much longer.

Glimpses of Gyarados came into view as Blastoise spun; the darting slivers were keeping him busy as well. Blastoise had thought he had seen what an angry Gyarados looked like until he watched Wake's Atrocious Pokémon redefine those standards. Whether it was death of his comrade or the constant barrage of bites and blasts — or even a bit of both; Gyarados unleashed his fury with every fiber of his being.

Gyarados was sturdier than Blastoise had given them him credit for, taking the attacks without even flinching. A blood-red aura radiated off his body like heat from a raging inferno, making him all the more menacing. His serpentine teammate slammed his tail into the swamp, sending a spray of water into the air and waves in all directions. He coiled and launched himself through the air as he swung the entirety of his body across the swamp with speed that belied his size.

Yet despite his efforts the darting figures evaded each of his attacks with room to spare and returned with their own barrage. Gyarados coiled in on himself again and began to spin, ignoring the attacks they launched at him. The waters of the swamp gradually coalesced into a towering waterspout.

Water sprayed from the cyclone with every shot the darting slivers fired into it. Any blast they launched was devoured by the maelstrom. Blastoise stayed in his shell as the waters were now too shallow to help him keep spinning. A few shots were fired at him but eventually ended when he did nothing in response. Minutes went on like this until Blastoise heard the buzzing drone fade into the distance and felt the waters return.

"They left us to attack train!" Gyarados roared, launching himself towards the tracks without waiting to see if Blastoise would or could respond.

"Whatever's attacking us…I couldn't even hit a single one. Even if we get there, would I even be able to do anything?" Blastoise thought. Gary's face flashed before the water starter's mind, erasing any remaining doubts he had.

"It doesn't matter. He needs me now more than ever. I'll just have to figure something out with the others."

***

Shieldon had been smiling at Quagsire when the Air Slash came; the wind sickle carved through the top of the carriage like it was no tougher than wet leaves. He hardly felt the blade pass over his stony hide, especially when his concerns were immediately directed to the screams that spilled through the gaps in the metal.

Quagsire had only started to turn when a hunk of his throat disappeared; bits of muscle glistened in the open air where his jugular should've been. His body had yet to fully fall when another chunk of him vanished, only a thin flap of skin where his arm was.

Electivire reacted quickly, trying to encase Quagsire's body in a box of Light Screens only to have the ones that protected him shatter instantly. The scales on Nidoking's shoulder were suddenly scuffed when another gust of wind passed through the gap in their defenses. It wasn't until a body materialized from the air behind Nidoking that they realized what they were up against.

Membranous wings fluttered erratically as the Yanma struggled to stay in the air. Its mandibles twitched as its body convulsed, black legs futilely scurrying for purchase. To no avail; the Yanma spiraled down with a splash into the murky swamp. The poison from Nidoking's scales finally worked its lethal effects, leaving the stricken Yanma still and silent beneath the water.

"Looks like the bastard bit off a little more than it could chew." Nidoking laughed until a Sonic Boom collided with him from behind. The Drill Pokémon emerged from the smoke, more irritated than harmed. "That all you fuckers got?"

His opponents replied with another dozen blasts of sound.

Electivire watched from within his fortification of green shields. In a desperate attempt to keep from being torn into tiny bits by the explosive bursts of sound, he alternated Protect and Light Screen in a frantic light show. The moment one barrier bust into glittering shards, another one took its place.

"At this rate I'm just gonna die exhausted. They just won't let up! I could take them all out; just one good Discharge or Thunder would do it, but I'd end up taking out everyone else with them. I could jump off and try to get as much distance from the train as possible, but would that be enough? Would these things even give me enough time to pull it off? Would they all even come after me? If I took a few of them with me, would it even matter in the end? How would I catch up in time with the others if I survived? Dammit! I have all this power and I still can't do anything!"

***

Screams rebounded off the carriage walls. Those conscious enough to know what was happening moaned and cried. Whispered pleas for life alternated with screams for mercy. An attack from the top corner of the carriage cleaved through the metal and continued into the floor, barely missing the wheels and the tracks underneath. Nausea threatened to overtake Newton at the sight of a man's innards spilling out in wet chunks on the carriage floor.

Infi moved without a word; a stiletto-sharp metal arm burst forth from Newton's backpack and plunged into the grievously wounded man's chest. Bright red arterial blood spurted from the hole, soaking the dying man's shirt. The miasma of death inside the carriage grew slightly thicker as the man twitched and then grew still.

As gory as it was, Infi had calculated that a stab to the heart was the fastest, most energy efficient and most humane way to euthanize the gravely wounded. With such a rapid loss of blood from the large hole, merciful unconsciousness came in mere seconds. And death soon after.

Newton remained silent. Normally, such an act by Infi would have aroused vociferous protests. But not now, for he had agreed to Infi's plan. In the event that one of the refugees was injured, Infi would run a complex algorithm to determine if they could survive long enough to make it to Pastoria to be treated and how much of their meager medical supplies would be consumed to stabilize them. If the algorithm showed they were unlikely to survive and/or stabilizing them would consume too much of their supplies, they'd be put down with a single, swift stab to the heart.

This seemingly cruel policy was possibly their only hope of making it to Pastoria with as many supplies and survivors as possible. As a result, Newton had made sure everyone who was conscious understood the policy before they went onto the carriage.

"Infi, what's attacking us now!?" Newton yelled as he backed away from the rays of light that filtered through the gash in the metal.

"The carriage's exterior sensors indicate focused vacuums are creating the cuts along the hull. The only ones capable of doing this type of attack would be the Yanma or Yanmega," Infi replied.

"Why are they attacking us!?"

A hatch in Newton's backpack opened and the HUD eyepiece swung out and extended out through the gash for a brief moment before retracting.

"They are technically not attacking us," Infi calmly corrected.

"What do you call that!?" Newton screamed, pointing his finger to the gash that the AI had peeked out of and then to the ceiling where lacerations traversed the carriage's length.

"It appears that they are not yet aware that people inhabit the carriages. If they knew, then their attacks would be more focused and everyone in here would be dead."

"Wonderful," Newton spat.

"This may actually be fortunate for us."

"Explain."

"Yanmega and Yanma are not very intelligent. They do not seem to connect the fact that the carriages are moving forward because of the engine. Linking my sensors with the engine's own, I detect no damage that would alter the engine's internal temperature or other vital parameters. Judging from the angle at which the last attack that entered this carriage, we can conclude that their aim is directed towards the Pokémon, not us.

"So those up top either take the hit and get hurt or killed. Or they dodge and let the attack carve through the carriage."

"That would seem to be the case."

"Would they leave us alone if we returned the Pokémon?" Newton offered.

"I cannot guarantee that they would. Returning them would require a direct line of sight and accurate aim of the pokéball's return beam. Even then it would need to be done without drawing attention to the swarm or being interrupted by them. There is no guarantee that they may stop once our defenders disappear. They may continue to attack the carriages simply because they are moving or if they believe their targets have hidden inside. This removal of their dampeners could have increased their level of aggression, which could throw off my calculations entirely."

"So then what do we do Infi?" Newton visibly deflated.

"If my calculations are correct, the Pokémon guarding us can hold them off long enough until they lose interest or kill enough of them to cause a retreat. They may leave us once we leave their territory but I cannot tell you when we will be out of it as I lack the data to make those calculations."

***

Blue bolts of ice lanced through the open air from Shieldon's mouth and joined threads of water and spheres of flame. Blastoise and Gyarados had rejoined their group to fill the air with attacks but no casualties seemed to appear from the opposing side. Nidoking had managed to remain standing but was noticeably battered. When attacks weren't being launched at them they were connecting with the carriages.

Weavile burst through a hole in one of the carriage walls and flipped onto the roof. His claws glowed bright blue as he slashed at the air, each swipe revealing another Yanma, crowned with a new icy horn. A majority of the swarm's focus immediately shifted to the ice weasel as he turned the swarm's own tactic against them, darting around each and every attack in midair while slashing with ice-sheathed claws.

Within minutes, the attacks stopped entirely. The flitting Yanma had retreated completely, leaving only a Yanmega that was somehow dodging Weavile's ice shards. For a moment Electivire believed the battle was finally over.

Until the air became thick with an indescribable noise. All around them the world seemed to tremble and shake with a mind-splitting screech droning on and on in their skulls.

***

Blastoise forced his head into the water, smashing it against the dark mud until the noise weakened with every meter that grew between him and the carriage. Gyarados thrashed and writhed against the drone as he panted hard and watched the train pull away from them. The water starter had raised his head when a concentrated column of sound blasted him in the stomach.

A mixture of berry mush and bile poured from his mouth and onto the swamp before he quickly retracted his limbs and head back to the safety of his shell. Gyarados could only watch as sonic blades converged on them from every angle, wondering if this was the last thing he was going to see. When the impact never came he opened his eyes to find himself within a dome of barriers.

"Blastoise, you okay?" Umbreon yelled from atop her psychic platform just over the water, prompting the turtle to peek out of his shell.

"U-Umbreon? What're you doing here?" he asked.

"Saving your lagging asses," she huffed, watching her barriers begin to crack under the continued abuse from outside.

"You're supposed to be resting. You can't fight these things!"

"I am tired—" she began, her crimson eyes bleaching into an incandescent white.

"—of being treated like I'm—" The reflective barriers around them shattered in unison.

"—completely useless!" Umbreon screamed. A wave of blue aura burst from her body until it formed an azure dome spanning several meters atop the swamp. Their invisible assailants now hung in the air, held in place by the Moonlight Pokémon's mind. Snaps and cracks filled the air as the Yanma were twisted into shapes that a living being was never meant to assume.

Blastoise winced with every visceral crunch and stared dumbly when the sphere of energy retreated back into Umbreon's body. Each splash marked the grave of a disfigured Yanma hitting the water.

"Why don't you use that more often?" Blastoise asked.

"I'm a dark-type, not a psychic. Imagine you trying to do a fire move. Furthermore, I'm barely standing as it is now. I think I have enough in me for another shot, but we've got to make it count."

"Why not use that move before?" Gyarados growled.

"That move doesn't work on dark-types like the Drapion, which is what I thought we were going to be dealing with in the first place. On top of that, I need a few seconds to get it started. With all those Yanma focused on you they didn't notice little old me setting up my barriers"

"How did you survive that Bug Buzz?" The water starter groaned as he extended his limbs, testing their functionality.

"The same way I killed these Yanma. I made a psychic barrier around myself to keep the noise from hitting me. It's a pretty nifty attack if you know how to use it." Umbreon let a smile grace her lips as she spoke.

"So why did you come back to us? Wouldn't your powers have helped the others?"

"It's harder for me to do while I'm on something that's moving and I doubt the Yanma would give me the chance to set up the attack. Besides, I saw you guys weren't there anymore and I'm not losing anyone else I care about. Luckily, the Yanma we were dealing with apparently weren't immune to that Bug Buzz the Yanmega used so they kept their distance and went for you guys. The others looked like they could hold on until I got back with you guys. Speaking of which, I didn't want to assume, but is Floatzel…"

"He didn't make it." Blastoise's voice was grim, his hands clenched into fists. "Those bastards literally ate him right in front of me. They didn't even leave enough to bury."

"No more talk. We avenge Floatzel now!" Gyarados said.

"He's right. Umbreon, hop on and hold on. I'm gonna need to go full throttle if we're gonna catch up with them."

Umbreon winced as she hopped onto Blastoise's shell. "Why do I feel like I'm not gonna like this ride?"

"We need move now! More swarm coming!" Gyarados added, arching his neck to the swamplands behind them.

"It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" Umbreon grumbled just before Blastoise burst forward.

***

A river of steel filaments surged towards the Yanmega, forcing it to end its Bug Buzz and dodge the attack. While most of them had been able to fight through the pain and continue attacking; the attack had clearly taken its toll on Weavile and Nidoking.

The Sharp Claw Pokémon was on all fours, coughing up blood between gulps of air. The cumulative damage had finally taken its toll on the now unconscious Nidoking. Electivire stood over the ice weasel with his tails stretched out to their maximum length, coiling around the two in a defensive column. Electivire's twin tails gleamed under the sunlight. If the Yanmega was eager enough to take a bite out of him or Weavile, it would get a mouthful of unpalatable metal.

"But how long can I keep my tails in this form?" Electivire thought.

The Yanmega darted in and out of their sights as it kept to the corners of their vision. Any attempt at launching a sonic blade was countered with a Protect. Staying too long in one place would give Shieldon enough time to fire on it.

As time passed on it appeared as though the Yanmega's plans were not too different from Electivire's. Keeping out of their sights no longer seemed to matter; the ogre darner would purposely stay in one spot, goading another attack out of Shieldon.

Of course, Shieldon fell for the trick every time. Eventually he starting firing wildly but no matter how many bolts of ice or torrents of metallic filaments he unleashed, not one even grazed his target.

"Save your strength," Electivire commanded the shield Pokémon. "He's just trying to tire you out and make you easier prey for him. We need to come up with a plan."

"Whaddya have in mind?" Shieldon demanded.

The thunderbeast's words were cut short when the Yanmega's wings glowed briefly and flapped in unison. A vertical blade of wind flew from its wings and soared towards Shieldon. He had taken smaller versions of the attack before with minimal damage to his body, save the impact threatening to push him off the carriage. The blade that now closed on him was at least three times larger than anything he had endured before.

On reflex Shieldon dodged, only to realize his mistake as the blade swept through the carriage beneath him and into the distant swamp. A slight jostle was all it took to make the carriage sections come apart. With every meter they passed the tiny gap began to grow wider and wider until it became a yawning chasm. Ice crystals began to form along Weavile's mouth as he prepared an Ice Beam to connect the halves. The effort ended abruptly when he coughed into his paw, blood seeping out from between his claws.

Sparks flew from scuffs on Electivire's metallic tails as he tried to anchor the two halves together. The Yanmega darted around him, daring him to try again moving again. He resisted the temptation to lash out, lest he leave himself or Weavile unguarded. Shieldon panicked as he tried to summon his own Ice Beam, only for no ice crystals to form. A row of Light Screens bridged the gap between them and closed off the open segments of the carriage.

"They're trying to separate us. Come here!" Electivire yelled, motioning with his eyes towards the Light Screen tunnel.

"What about Quagsire?" Shieldon yelled back, noting that while the screens linked the halves of the carriage, it did nothing to keep them from separating.

"He's gone, Shieldon! We can't help him anymore! Leave him!" Electivire roared back.

Shieldon stared back at the fallen form of his newly formed friend, then back at the thunderbeast and the bridge of light. The Yanmega darted around them, watching the carriages part from different angles and with suspicion. If Electivire didn't know any better, he could've sworn that the Yanmega didn't intend to split them up. In fact, it seemed confused by the sudden action of the train.

Electivire glanced behind him and into the distance. The dark cloud of reinforcements got closer and closer. Once the Yanma swarm caught up with them, the Yanmega wouldn't need to be cautious. These Pokémon weren't exactly talkative, which made reasoning difficult, if not impossible. For all the difficulties the Drapion gave him, at least he was capable of parleying with them.

If the Yanmega's reaction to the sudden change of events was anything to go off of, these wild Pokémon weren't the brightest bolts in the storm.

Electivire looked back at Shieldon, still rooted to the same spot on his carriage. The bridge was now a few feet away from him. Adding another Light Screen to lengthen it was easy, but it would leave him without any defensive techniques afterwards.

"What are you waiting for!?" Electivire shouted

"Newton's still in the carriage!" Shieldon replied. "I'm not leaving him!"

Electivire understood; he understood all too well because Gary was in that same carriage with Newton. He wanted nothing more than to leave Paul's carriage for Gary's own, but getting there without provoking another attack from the Yanmega would be difficult.

Moving around with Weavile would weigh him down, and from the looks of it, the ice weasel already had one foot in the grave. Yet, the same could be said for everyone in Newton's carriage. His own trainer included.

Paul's carriage was filled with healthy refugees; if they made it to Pastoria, there was a good chance they'd live. Yet if he were honest with himself, he had no allegiance to humans in the carriage beneath him. If they died, he'd feel bad. But Gary's life was more important to him by far.

"If those people died because you couldn't protect them, it would be one thing but if they died because you abandoned them…" Nidoking was still behind him and unconscious. Could he leave a teammate he'd known for years to save their shared trainer?

"I won't blame you." Weavile's voice snapped him back into the world and made him glance down. The look in the ice weasel's eyes told him so much with so little. Mixed in with his gaze of pain was understanding, acceptance and a small twinge of fear he couldn't completely mask.

"You wanna go," he added. The words weren't so much a question as they were a statement. Electivire would've been lying if he said that he didn't, but leaving Weavile to fight by himself in the state he was in gave him reason to pause.

"Not just yet," the thunderbeast replied. "I'm gonna need you to stand up though." He waited for the Sharp Claw Pokémon to lift up before he crouched down. With less of his body to cover, one of his tails uncoiled and moved over to Shieldon's carriage. His tail then stabbed through the ceiling and hooked into the carriage's ceiling as he tried to keep the two halves of the train from separating. Despite being steel for the time being, the base of his tail was still connected to flesh, and the sudden tension sent a blinding pain through him.

Electivire liked to think that he knew his limits; knew how much pain he could handle before he gave in. He had taken all sorts of attacks over the years, but this one was on a whole different level.

"You don't have to do this! I know I don't look it, but I can hold my own against that thing! I still have one trick against him. As long as he doesn't do that sound attack again, I'll be okay! Go over to the other side before your tail rips off!" Weavile shouted, doing his best to make sure he didn't cough as he spoke.

"Nice try. Not leaving you here. You mentioned a trick. What is it?" Electivire grunted back.

"Paul calls it Pressure. It does things to the Pokémon around me. They get slower and tire faster."

Electivire felt a twinge of annoyance run through him. "And you didn't do this earlier because?"

"My ability doesn't discriminate between teammates and opponents. You and Shieldon would feel the effects as well. These bastards are long range fighters; they could just as easily fly out of its range and blast us. To top it off, you guys would be too slow to react to their attacks while in my presence." Weavile looked over to Shieldon's carriage, specifically the Light Screen that kept anyone from falling out of it.

"If I use it near the carriage of the wounded, the strain of just trying to breathe near me might kill them. Since the people below us are healthy, they might be able to handle it, but that's under the assumption that my pressure hasn't changed like our other moves. I can tell from the look on your face that you can't hold the other carriage forever. Unlike you, I can follow that thing's movements. The second he makes a move for me and you guys are out of range, I'll activate the ability. It'll disorient him and that'll be my moment to strike and get him for good. I may need you to come back for the swarm behind us though."

"I'll come back, and I'm sorry for this," Electivire managed to grind out before he leapt away from the ice weasel. The Yanmega responded immediately, flying at him while he swung through the air and released his hold of Shieldon's carriage. The hum of static and electric discharge quickly dissuaded the Yanmega from approaching any further. Shieldon was nearly launched off the roof from the force of Electivire's landing.

"You left him?!" Shieldon was livid.

"He told me to leave him behind. And you wouldn't come over," Electivire replied.

"I didn't tell you to leave him though! Isn't he hurt?"

"He said he could handle himself. Let's just hope he was right…" Electivire's voice trailed off with the last words as he watched the Yanmega. If they made it out of this mess alive, he'd have to give Weavile some credit, trying to follow the Yanmega was exhausting him more than he thought it would.

"Quagsire!" Shieldon cried out, making Electivire wonder if the water fish rolled off and fallen from the carriage, at least until Shieldon kept talking.

"Stay down, you're hurt." Shieldon ran over to the carriage where Quagsire had fallen.

"You've got to be kidding me," Electivire thought to himself as he turned around and saw that Yanmega moved in to strike.

***

Nyquze darted around the racing metal tendril. There were so many potential meals to devote her attention to. The large yellow one was following her now, making it difficult to attack them from an unprotected angle without the others being immediately warned. While he had yet to strike back, she could not dismiss the yellow one as a threat.

Surely he was biding his time to unleash his element when she least expected it. The small brown one was irritating but not very threatening. His attempts to strike her were slow and easily avoidable, but he was durable. Infuriatingly so.

The dark one had been the most dangerous, but had gone quiet and still since she made her sound attack. Underestimating him would mean her death, so she always made sure to keep him in her sight when she darted around them.

Now they were separated which complicated things. She would need to work quickly before the rest of her swarm arrived. While they were still a part of her brood, if they had their way they would leave nothing behind for her to eat. She had gotten a few mouthfuls earlier but it was not enough to sate her. A sudden bout of movement caught her attention, though not where she had expected. The blue and slimy creature she had taken a few bites out of was beginning to rise once more.

Nyquze thought he had been down for good, and judging from the reactions the others were having, they had thought the same. Now instead of three aggressive morsels, she had to contend with four. This new addition did not please her; especially when the situation was already difficult enough. She darted to another position, trying to view her newest obstacle from a new angle.

Most of the blue creature's throat was still missing, as was the arm she had consumed. His movements were sluggish and it was a marvel that he was still alive, let alone moving. Maybe she he wasn't as big threat as she thought if he already had one foot in the grave. Nonetheless, a small threat was still a threat and she needed to finish him off before he regained his strength.

"Who knows, this next piece might actually sate my appetite," she told herself. Though she said this nearly every time she tore a hunk out of her prey. "The last bits were rather chewy, not at all like the orange one earlier. But what should I go for? His head? Maybe his eyes? There is his other arm..."

The smaller creature was bounding towards her wounded target, no doubt trying to make her work harder for her meal. Luckily, at the speed he was going she would be able to make two bites into the blue creature before the little one made it there. The yellow one and the dark one were in her sights. Though neither of them seemed intent on responding to her attack on the blue creature.

Black and beady eyes stared into hers as she closed in; the small brown creature charged towards her but was still too slow to do much of anything. Thinking her guard was down, the dark creature on the other carriage launched shards of ice at her wings. Nyquze spun around and watched the blade cut through the air around her, failing to slow her down. The sudden turn forced her to veer away from the blue one's head but the rest of his body was still in her sights.

"So the other arm it is," she thought to herself as her salivating maw opened.

***

Shieldon could only watch in horror as the Yanmega closed in on Quagsire. The ravenous Pokémon clamped her jaws over the fist he had thrown at her in a last ditch effort to go down fighting. The Ogre Darner rushed past him for a few meters before dropping into waters of the marsh.

"But I missed!" Weavile gawked as he stared at the ice spikes protruding out from the Yanmega's head. His shock was short-lived when he remembered that there were other things that needed his attention. He immediately went to work on the other carriage, now several meters away from his.

A column of ice linked the carriages by the corners. Almost as soon as the links were formed, ominous cracks and hisses emanated from the ice as the speeding carriages stressed the material to its breaking point. Fractures snaked along the ice column, only to be quickly buried under a fresh coat of ice.

"This should hold them together. For now," Weavile muttered as he fired another Ice Beam at a gradually widening fissure in the ice link.

Electivire dropped to his knees the moment he released his Iron Tail, using what little strength he had in his arms to turn around. Standing beside Shieldon was Quagsire, now lacking both of his arms.

"How?" Electivire could only stare at Quagsire who seemed only mildly inconvenienced by the loss of both arms.

"Just like I was telling Shieldon here, we're sturdy," Quagsire replied.

"But the Yanmega—" Shieldon began.

"—bit off more than it could chew it seems. Had to give up an arm to do it, but it seems my Ice Punch did the trick."

"You knew it would go for your arm?" Electivire asked.

Quagsire nodded. "It was a gamble. Could've easily went for my head and that would've been the end of me."

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but how're you still…"

"Alive?" Quagsire finished, evidently unfazed by the question. "I'll admit; it was close. The moment I fell down, I used Rest and focused most of my energy on the wound on my neck. I didn't expect to survive while I was out. But it seems that no one attacked me while I was down."

"I'm sorry you had to give up your arm." Shieldon's eyes started to shimmer the longer he looked at Quagsire's wounds.

"You have nothing to apologize for; you weren't the one who removed them. To be honest I'm already somewhat used to this."

"We might have another problem on our hands soon." Electivire pointed to the cloud of Yanma in the distance.

"I'm afraid any assistance I might offer you now will be limited," Quagsire began until Electivire held out his palm to him.

"You've done more than enough and you really shouldn't be fighting in your condition. I can release the barrier on this carriage and you can stay with the wounded humans."

"You're going to need every able fighter to fend those creatures off," Quagsire replied. If Electivire didn't know any better, the Water Fish sounded almost offended at the notion that he would be lumped in with the invalids. Electivire was about to argue until he noticed Quagsire and Shieldon were now focused on something past him.

At some point Weavile had silently entered their midst.

Weavile gave the Water Fish a brief smile. "Nice to see you amongst the living." He then turned to Shieldon "How 'bout you kid, got any other ice moves?"

Shieldon kept his gaze to the floor and shook his head. "I used them all up attacking the Yanmega."

"Let me guess. You're almost out of ice attacks and that ice isn't gonna hold forever?" Electivire closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead as he let out a sigh.

"Yer smarter than ya look, I'll give ya that," Weavile said. "Yeah, the ice holding our rides together isn't gonna hold too much longer and I'm down to a few shots to reinforce it. The fact that it's still holdin' together even now is surprising me but trust me when I say it'll fall apart before we reach the end of this ride. You wouldn't happen to know any ice moves, would ya?"

Electivire shook his head. His eyes snapped open to the sound of something speeding towards them. He and the ice weasel turned in unison to see Blastoise's shell surging towards them. They were barely able to make out a dark figure clinging desperately to the surface. Gyarados was further back but eventually caught up to them as he slithered through the wetlands along the other side of the track.

Electivire extended his tails towards Umbreon, who catapulted herself off of Blastoise. In a truly amazing display of coordination and accuracy, the thunderbeast caught her in midair. He reeled her in, letting her catch her breath before she started talking again.

"Please tell me Nidoking's still alive," Umbreon said between pants.

"He's out but he'll make it," Electivire replied. "But importantly, when did you get out of the carriage? You're supposed to be resting until you're at full strength."

"You think I can sleep with all this racket!?" Umbreon snapped. "Also, I won't get to full strength if all of you die and there's no one left to protect or defend me! For your information I left the carriage around the time the Yanmega decided to play us the song of its people! I don't see it around so I'm guessing you guys killed it."

"That was Quagsire!"

Shieldon's outburst earned him the combined stares of the Pokémon around him, making him want to melt into the ground until they forgot he existed. Umbreon flinched when she saw Quagsire's wounds. The words formed on her tongue, but she knew it would have to wait until later.

"We've got an entire swarm of Yanma closing in behind us and I don't think they'll stop just because we get to the city. So what's the plan?" Umbreon asked.

"I've got a few Ice Shards left but I'd only be able to take out a dozen of them. And that's only if they're close enough so they can't dodge as easily," Weavile replied.

"I could take them out without a problem," Electivire said. "But the problem is that everyone here and in the carriages would get caught in the blast. I would need to stay behind and wait for them; by the time they got into range I would hope that you'd all be out of it."

"That could work." Umbreon nodded, working something out in her head. "But I don't want to send you alone."

"Who else could come with me? Nidoking might be able to resist my attack but he's out cold. And I don't wanna risk sending Qaugsire in his current state, no offense."

"None taken," Quagsire replied.

"Sending anyone else will be putting them in just as much risk as the Yanma," Weavile said.

"Then I'll go," Umbreon replied, her voice firm. This proclamation evoked another round of silent stares. Red met red as the thunderbeast and the Eeveelution stared at one another. Several years' worth of experience silently passed between them. Neither one seemed willing to back down until Electivire sighed and looked away.

"I'm assuming you have a plan. You wouldn't be doing this if you didn't have a plan," Electivire said.

"Of course." The Moonlight Pokémon smiled.

***

"So in reality you have no plan!" Electivire screamed, watching the carriage disappear into the horizon.

"I had an idea and a gut feeling that it could work!" Umbreon answered sheepishly as she added another barrier. "Trust me!" she continued, hoping she could mollify the angry Electivire.

"How can I trust you when you picked this exact moment to tell me this!?" The thunderbeast stomped and scowled. It was an uncharacteristic display but he had no other safe way to vent his frustration.

"I could've kept quiet, but I thought it best to be honest and not give you any false hopes. Look at the bright side. If I'm right, then this will be easy and the others will be safe."

"And if you're wrong?" Electivire growled.

"I was getting to that." Umbreon huffed. "If I'm wrong, then I should still be alive after your attack…you'll just have to deal with the stragglers and make sure I live. See, simple."

"Simple she says," Electivire grumbled, already starting to hear the buzz of the encroaching swarm. "Now?" he asked; eager to get the plan over with.

"Not yet," Umbreon replied.

"How about now?" The Yanma swarm was now a dozen meters away. But that already too close for Electivire's comfort.

"Just a few more seconds. I want to make sure they all see this."

Electivire was about to snipe back with a comment about Umbreon's lack of planning when the barriers behind him began to glow red. Hundreds of lidless eyes shimmered into view atop the surface of each barrier.

"I can't believe it! She did it! She actually combined them!" The thunderbeast marveled at the display as he watched the swarm stop just before him. The buzzing grew higher in pitch as the Yanma wondered why they couldn't move past him.

"I'm thinking of calling it Mean Screen. Anyway, you're up, now make this count!" Umbreon whispered before sealing herself in a multilayered box of psychic panels suspended off the ground behind the wall of eyes.

"I intend to." Electivire allowed himself a sadistic smile as tendrils of lightning arced across the fur on his body. For three days he had been forced to keep his powers inactive. And now without the worry of collateral damage, he could now unleash the full wrath of the electrical might he commanded.

***

Weavile's legs dangled over the edge of the carriage. His legs swung in a metronomic manner with every bump in the track. The hulking form of Nidoking's unconscious body was behind him. Working with Electivire had been strange to say the least. In a way, it was like Electabuzz had never left, but some of the things that Electivire said and did betrayed the fantasy and reminded him that his teammate was gone.

A flash of light caught his attention and made him lift his head to the railway behind them. It was small at first, but a golden dome of energy quickly eclipsed the horizon, painting the entire landscape a blinding white. But as soon as the dome appeared, it already began to collapse. In mere seconds, all that remained were columns of steam towering over the swampland, shimmering ribbons of superheated air and the penetrating stench of ozone.


End file.
